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THE 



REFORM MINISTRY, 



AND THE 



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REPRINTED FROM THE FIFTH LONDON I'.DITION. 



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WASHINGTON: 

J, GIDEON, JR. PRINTER. 

1833. 















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THE 

REFORM MINISTRY, 

3 CX^, AND THE 

REFORMED PARLIAMENT. 



" I should wish to ask the Noble Lord, (said the Duke of 
Wellington to Earl Grey, in a speech on the Reform Bill,) 
how any Ministry will hereafter be able to conduct the King's 
Government, with a Parliament such as will be returned by 
this Bill." 

Well, — the experiment has been tried. The first Session 
of the Reformed Parliament has closed. That Parliament, 
which, according to the prophecies of one side, was to bring 
with it little else than anarchy; which, accordiugto the hopes of 
the other, was at once to relieve all our burthens, and redress 
every abuse. 

Of course, the fears and the hopes of both sides were ex- 
aggerated. It must, nevertheless, be admitted that those who 
feared had more reasonable foundation for their alarm, than 
those who had hoped for their expectations. Any Parliament, re- 
formed or unreformed, might have gone far to corrupt or des- 
troy the institutions of the country; they might have brought 
about that anarchy which was prophesied or affected to be 
feared; but no Parliament could have done all that was pre- 
tended to be hoped. No Parliament would have done all this, 
even if we suppose the whole body to have had the clearest 
views as to what was expedient, and to have been unanimous 
in the pursuit of their objects. 

That there is a nearer approach to wisdom and honesty in 
the present Parliament than in any of its predecessors, we 
think is shewn by the events of the Session; but still it is only 
an approach; and highly as we estimate the merits of the Re- 
formed House, we still must admit, that if it gave peculiar ad- 
vantages to a public spirited Ministry, it exposed such a Minis- 
try, to peculiar difficulties. 

Previous administrations have usually had but one set of 
opponents : opponents united in their principles, and all actua- 
ted by common motives. The battles they had to fight, and 
the questions they had to debate, were circumscribed withir 



limits, admitted by both sides. — It is the fortune of the pre- 
sent Government to be encountered by two hostile factions, 
the Tories and the Radicals, who appear to agree in no princi- 
ple either of preservation or destruction, and have no object 
common to both, except that of endeavouring to persuade the 
people of the imbecility of the Ministers. 

What has been done? is their cry. 

It is obvious that the parties opposed to the Ministers would 
give different answers to this question. The Tories, if com- 
pelled to employ some definite terms, would probably assert 
that too much had been done; and the Radicals, too little. 

But it must be remembered that the present Ministers are 
invested with the highest trust which it ever fell to the lot of 
men to execute. Their junction with either of the adverse 
parties must be fatal to the quiet of the country, and defeat, 
for a long period, all the good we have obtained, or may ex- 
pect. 

They must trust to the good sense of the great body of their 
fellow-citizens, to permit them gradually and steadily to repair 
the injuries which the country has sustained by a misgovern- 
ment of nearly fifty years, and claim a confidence for integrity 
for the future, by an impartial review of what has already passed. 

The present Ministry wisely commenced the work of general 
reform by a reform in the constituency of the House of Commons. 
And surely, in effecting this great measure, no party can accuse 
them of want of integrity, or courage. They demolished by 
this blow the groundwork which had supported all preceding 
administrations. All that, for which former parties contended, 
and for which they sought to be in place. — With this reform, 
patronage, the main lever of former politicians, inevitably pe- 
rished, and has left the present Ministers, as it will leave all fu- 
ture administrations, dependent solely on the support of the 
people. Their enemies did not then accuse them of doing no- 
thing. The Tories announced the value of the measure by 
their torror, and the Radicals by their joy. As compared 
with the great measure of reform, all others appear subordinate. 
The impression it created, the excitement it produced, still 
agitates the public mind. Its magnitude conceals the impor- 
tance of all other political measures. Every step which has 
followed it appears diminutive, when compared with this 
mighty stride. It renders men dissatisfied with the delay re- 
quired for the details of inferior changes, with which the wel- 
fare of large masses of the community is interwoven, and 
which cannot be carried into execution without either great 
precaution or great injustice. 

The subjects which have principally occupied the attention 



of the Ministers and of Parliament, daring the past Session 
may be divided under the following heads : — 

Ireland, East India Charter, Scotland, 

Slavery, Trade, Poor Laws, 

Finance, Law, Foreign Policy. 

Bank Charter, Corporations, 

On each of these subjects we shall make a few observations, 
and shall conclude by a short estimate of the conduct and 
character of the Members of the New Parliament. These de- 
tails may be dry, but it is only by facts that either the Ministers 
or the Parliament can be judged; it is only by a detailed con- 
sideration of what has been done, that men can judge whether 
Lord Grey was sincere when he proclaimed that Reform 
should be " the means to an end," and whether the new con- 
stituency deserved to rouse the suspicions expressed by the 
Duke of Wellington, or the terrors of Mr. Croker. 

IRELAND. 

The state of Ireland was the first great question brought be- 
fore Parliament ; and in fact was the most prominent subject of 
the Session. It is true that there were other questions of 
great moment and urgency, but the state of Ireland admitted 
no delay. 

When the present Government took office, the storm which 
had been gathering for the previous half century had burst. 
The first remedies which they applied were such as, if they 
had been adopted by their predecessors, might have been suf- 
ficient. Measures were adopted for removing the collision be- 
tween the tenantry and the clergy as to tithes, and for throw- 
ing the maintenance of the Establishment upon the Landlord;* 
Public education was made equally accessible to the Catholic 
and the Protestant;! Agriculture and Manufactures were en- 
couraged i% a large fund was appropriated for the promotion of 
public works ;§ the road to prosper ity was opened, if the 

• 2 & 3 William IV. c. 119. 

f The system of public education introduced by Mr. Stanley. 

$ The repeal of the duty on coal (all the coal used in Ireland being neces- 
sarily imported) was a great boon both to the manufacturers and agriculturists. 
There were many other measures that gave ample evidence of the disposi- 
tion of the Government to relieve the productive classes of the com- 
munity. 2 William IV. c. 17. 2 William IV. c. 17. 2 William IV. c. 21. 2 
William IV. c. 17. 2 William IV. c. 31. 2 & 3 William IV. c. 52. 2 & 3 Wil- 
liam IV. c 77. 

§ 1 &. 2 William IV. c. 33. Under this Act not less than 230,000/. have 
been already advanced, for making bridges, docks, harbours, canals, roads, 
and other works, for the internal improvement of Ireland. Applications for 
loans to the amount of 297,000/., for similar objects, are now under considera- 
tion. 



peaceable and industrious portion of the community could only 
obtain protection while treading it. But that protection they 
had not, nor did it appear that in the existing state of the law 
they could have ii. We are wrong, perhaps, in using the 
word law, for law, in its usual acceptation, that is, an instru- 
ment by which the persons and properties of the innocent are 
secured, had almost ceased to exist; and the question was, shall 
Ireland be suffered to fall into the sanguinary barbarism of 
Abyssinia, or, whatever be the difficulty, whatever be the risk, 
whatever even be the certain sacrifice, shall she, at that risk, 
or at that sacrifice, be restored to civilization? Read Lord 
Althorp's catalogue of one year's crimes for Leinster — murders 
and attempts to murder, 163 — robberies, 317 — burglaries, 182 
burnings, 194— houghing cattle, 70 — other wilful and mali- 
cious injuries to property, 407 — serious assaults, 744 — illegal 
notices, 913. 

The Ministry saw, that unless they could at once devise 
some remedy, all was lost. Of what avail would it have been, 
that they had attempted palliations? No remedy, no relief 
could be applied, till the moral state of society was renovated; 
till some political, as well as personal liberty was restored. 
Ministers did not disguise from themselves or the House, that 
the Coercion Bill was an infringement of the Constitution. They 
put it forward expressly as an infringement, but as a necessary 
infringement. It was thus referred to by Lord Grey, in 
his speech on the Irish Church Reform Bill, when he said, 
"I feel more strongly in reference to the immediate question 
of Ireland, in consequence of the necessity, the unfortunate 
necessity, — under which we found ourselves, at the beginning 
of this session, of proposing a law which, as we did not con- 
ceal from ourselves or from the public, was a measure of ex- 
treme severity, a departure from the spirit of the Constitution, 
only to be justified in a case of extremity. God forbid, my 
Lords, that the measure should become permanent; since its 
continuance can only be rendered expedient by the continu- 
ance of evils, which ought to be remedied in the interval of 
tranquillity which it affords." The measure passed both 
Houses by large majorities; the country as well as Parlia- 
ment admitted its necessity. Its success has been the very 
highest of which a preventative measure is capable. It has 
succeeded, not only without having been abused, but almost 
without having been employed. Only one county (Kilkenny) 
has been proclaimed; this was done on the 10th of April; and 
the following is the r suit. The outrages in that county in the 
year 1833, were, Jan. 196.— Feb. 178.— March, 144.— April, 
47,— May, 15. 



The measure next in importance, was the Irish Church Bill; 
one of a series of measures intended to remove those causes of 
complaint, and disturbance, which rendered the Coercive Law 
necessary. The provisions of this bill have been so recently- 
discussed, that it would be useless to enter into any detail. 
Its most important features were, the abolition of Church 
Rates, or, as they are called in Ireland, Vestry Cess, the sup- 
pression of 10 bishopricks out of 22, and the application of 
their revenues to purposes of religious instruction. 

Those who look forward with eagerness to reform in the 
English Church Establishment, hailed the measure not only 
as an act of justice to Ireland, but as affording some clue to 
what may be the feelings and conduct of Ministers, when thev 
shall redeem their promise, by entering on the arduous task of 
Church Reform in England. 

The Grand Jury, and the Jury Bills, also were subjects of 
vast importance in the affairs of Ireland ; a great part of the bu- 
siness of Grand Juries, in Ireland, is the making presentments 
for public works, chiefly roads. These were usually made 
by persons most interested in the work to be done, often the 
Grand Jurors themselves, and often for making roads, from 
which the public derived no benefit. None but those acquaint- 
ed with the jobbing, and the malversation of an Irish Grand 
Jury, could conceive the abuses attending and incidental to 
their presentments. A few years ago, the evil was partially 
remedied; but enough remained to make the existence of these 
presentments a grievous burthen on the country. 

The Act passed provides, that a certain number of persons, 
paying the highest amount of county rate, shall be associated 
with the magistrates at Sessions, to judge of their present- 
ments, and that all works to be executed, shall be done by 
open contract, and a certain portion of the rate-payers are 
vested with a control over the expenditure. 

The object of the Jury Bill was to promote the better ad- 
ministration of justice, by securing the impartial selection of 
Juries, and preventing the intimidation of witnesses, which 
was done by assimilating the law of Ireland as far as possible to 
that of England, under Sir R. Peel's Jury Act; this was aid- 
ed by the change of Venue Bill, which gave an opportunity of 
removing the trial of offences beyond the reach of local heats 
and animosities. 

Two Commissions have been issued, from which much 
good may be expected — one for inquiring into the Corpora- 
tions of Ireland, and the other for inquring into the state of 
the laboring classes in Ireland. Mr. Sergeant Perrin is at the 
head of the former, the Archbishop of Dublin and the Catholic 



Primate are members of the latter. Such names are a security 
to the public that the inquiries will be efficiently conducted. 

One of the last Acts of the Session was for the relief of the 
Clergy in Ireland, and, to afford time forsettling the terms upon 
which an equitable commutation of lithe might eventually be 
effected. 

As we can say no good, so we shall not say any thing of 
the conduct of the Opposition Lords on some of these mea- 
sures; whether they became in the eleventh hour convinced of 
their necessity, or whether they at last found it was not expe- 
dient to place themselves in direct opposition to the Commons, 
needs not here to be discussed. What, however, can be said 
for the sincerity of those, who opposing the Irish Church Re- 
form Bill solely on religious grounds, could choose no more ap- 
propriate leader than the Duke of Cumberland! ! 

THE ABOLITION OF WEST INDIA SLAVERY. 

On this subject at the commencement of the Session, the 
minds of reflecting men were fixed with intense, and anxious 
expectation. That it would — that it must, be brought under 
the consideration of the Reformed Parliament, in their first Ses- 
sion, no one could doubt, who had noted the zeal of its promo- 
ters, and the hold which it had evidently taken upon the pub- 
lic mind. The excited hopes, and growing intelligence of the 
Slave population rendered its final settlement at no distant 
period, inevitable, and every day of its postponement was 
fraught with augmented danger. Yet the gigantic extent of 
the subject, the vast commercial interests involved in its devel- 
opement, the conflicting principles and prejudices which were 
to be encountered, the great moral and political problems 
which were to be solved, might well justify the apprehensions 
of those who felt that, while the crisis was inevitable and the 
danger imminent, the difficulties which were to be encounter- 
ed were hardly less than insuperable. On the other hand, to 
allow such a question to be thrown loosely before Parliament, 
the Country, and the Colonies ; to furnish the mere assertion 
of a principle, independently of the practical details by which 
it could be carried into effect; to leave the subject in the hands 
of those who were not responsible for the working of the 
great experiment; would manifestly have been a dereliction 
of duly on the part of Ministers, a shrinking from the high 
and arduous task which they had to perform, that would in it- 
self have insured failure, and realized the most disastrous an- 
ticipations of the most timid. Unappalled, therefore, by the 
magnitude of the difficulties, increased, as those difficulties 
were, by the excitement under which the subject must be 



brought forward, and the exorbitant demands of the West In- 
dians and the Abolitionists, Ministers boldly and wisely deter- 
mined to grapple with the question ; and in the name of his 
colleagues, Lord Althorp promised that it should be done. 

The performance of that promise is the Act for the Aboli- 
tion of Slavery: and a brief examination of its three principal 
features — the Extinction of Slavery — the Compensation to the 
Proprietors, and the Apprenticeship of the emancipated Ne- 
groes, will shew that Ministers have faithfully redeemed their 
pledge ; and that Parliament has honestly, prudently, and 
fearlessly performed its part. 

The Act provides for the entire extinction of Slavery in the 
British Colonies on the 1st of August, 1834. 

From that day, Slavery becomes altogether illegal; it is no 
longer protected, nor even recognized by the law; it is de- 
nounced, proscribed, abolished for ever, throughout all the do- 
minions which own the British sway. 

Can we hesitate in pronouncing that this early period fixed 
for this great act of justice, is completely satisfactory to ever}' 
friend of liberty and humanity. Is it not immediate Eman- 
cipation? 

With regard to the compensation, the sum of 20,000,000/. 
%vhich the Act provides to be distributed among the Proprie- 
tors of Slaves, has been considered by the proprietors resident 
in this country sufficiently satisfactory to induce them to pro- 
mise their co-operation here, and their influence in the Colo- 
nies, in carrying into effect the intentions of the Government, 
and the enactments of the Imperial Legislature; and there is 
no risk of the liberality of the country being abused, since it is 
provided that no part of the compensation is to be paid to any 
Colony, unless it has adopted and conformed to the humane 
views of the Mother Country. 

When it is considered that, in the early part of the discus- 
sions on this branch of the subject, the Abolitionists denied in 
toto the right of the Proprietors to the services of their Slaves, 
or to any compensation for the loss of those services, and that, 
on the other hand, the West India Proprietors valued their 
Slaves alone at ^44,000,000. ; and further, that during the 
whole Session the public mind has been more than usually sen- 
sitive to the burthen of taxation, and more than ever alive to 
the necessity of every practicable economy and retrenchment 
— it must be admitted that to produce a satisfactory result has 
required great firmness as well as discretion on the part of Min- 
isters. 

Had the Act merely granted emancipation to the Slave, 
and compensation* to the Proprietor, it might have been satif» 

2 



10 

factory to those whose personal and pecuniary interests were 
directly affected, but it certainly would not have been safe. 

It was absolutely necessary that some plan should be devis- 
ed, which should prevent the emancipated slave from relapsing 
into the condition of the savage ; which should afford opportu- 
nity for adapting the laws and institutions of the Colonies to 
the entirely altered condition of society, and which might pre- 
vent the. loss to the West India Proprietors, and to the trade 
and revenues of this country, that would necessarily ensue from 
an immediate and total cessation of the cultivation of Colo- 
nial produce. 

For these purposes, the Act provides that every Negro 
shall, immediately upon his emancipation, become an appren- 
tice to his present master for a period not exceeding six years. 

During this interval the Slaves who are engaged in the culti- 
vation and manufacture of sugar, and other agricultural pro- 
duce are to work for their masters, as apprentices, for 45 
hours per week, in consideration of being provided with all 
the necessaries of life in the same manner as ai present. 

By this arrangement, a supply of labour to a moderate ex- 
tent is insured to the proprietors : they are protected from the 
incalculable inconvenience and danger which would accrue 
from the uncontrolled vagrancy and indolence of the Negroes, 
and they will be able, in this interval, not only to make such 
laws and police regulations, as the communities may require, 
but also to train up the Negro in habits of voluntary industry, 
and to fit him for the duties of a free citizen, which lie will 
eventually have to perform. 

The certain supply of labour which the apprenticeship pro- 
vides, although insufficient for the production of the amount of 
produce now exported from the Colonies, will probably be suf- 
ficient to prevent the necessit}^ of resorting to the slave Colo- 
nies of other nations for the supply of that produce, which 
would be a direct encouragement to that very system we are 
in the act of abolishing. 

The principal advantage of the apprenticeship, however, ac- 
crues to the Negroes themselves. They are, in fact, placed in 
a condition of greater comfort than that of the peasantry of 
any civilized nation. 

For a very moderate amount of labour, leaving a large re- 
serve of unrestricted leisure, not only are the effective Ne- 
groes, but the whole Slave population, to be maintained by the 
Proprietors during the apprenticeship. 

The duty imposed upon them of working 45 hours per week 
for their employer, secures them from the evils and vices of a 
vagrant and idle life j and, at the same time, the mutual de- 



11 

pendence of the employer and the apprentice, arising out of 
this limitation of the hours of compulsory labour, will lead ne- 
cessarily to a system of voluntary contracts to work for wages. 

Those who objected to the system of apprenticeship, de- 
scribed it as enforcing work without wages, but overlooked or 
suppressed the fact — that wages, and those by no means inade- 
quate, will be given to the apprenticed labourer in the form of 
maintenance and lodging, and other necessaries for himself, 
and also for those whom he would otherwise be bound to sup- 
port. 

Nor must it be overlooked, that, in a state of Slavery, the 
master is bound to furnish his Slaves with houses and provi- 
sion grounds, to which they in general become much attached, 
and which, from long habit, they have learnt to consider as 
their own individual property. The nature of rent, or the ve- 
ry idea of making any payment for leave to occupy these prem- 
ises, has never entered into the imagination of a Negro: yet it 
is equally clear, that when he ceases to be a slave, the master is 
no longer bound to furnish him with lodging and land gratu- 
itously ; and that, on the other hand, any attempt to eject the 
Negro population, would be not only hazardous, but impracti- 
cable. It seems, therefore, a wise provision, that by an inter- 
mediate state of attachment to the soil, the Negro should, for 
a time, retain possession of his present habitation, and during 
the term of his contract pay for it, and for the annual supplies 
of clothing which, on the present system of Trade, are regu- 
larly supplied from Great Britain according to the demand, by 
a reasonable proportion of labour in lieu of money. 

Nor were those who opposed this part of the Government 
plan, prepared to agree in the substitution of any expedient to 
meet the various evils which it was intended to prevent. 

Such are the principal features of the measure, by means of 
which Ministers have attempted to solve the great problem 
which was submitted to them. The details of the plan they 
have properly left to the local experience of the various Colo- 
nial legislatures. 

To those legislatures, also, they have wisely afforded the op- 
portunity of anticipating, by laws of their own, the enact- 
ments of the British Parliament, and of acquiring the grati- 
tude and confidence of the Slave Population, by spontaneously 
conferring upon them the blessings and privileges of freedom. 

On one subject alone, the Ministers have felt that its peculiar 
nature, and the circumstances of some particular Colonies, 
made it necessary to legislate immediately and decisively. All 
restrictions upon the teachers of the Christian religion in the 
British Colonies, are removed be this Act, except such as exist 
in the Mother Country. 



12 

It would be foreign to our purpose, and would exceed the 
limits to which we are restricted, to enter more into the details 
of this important change in the condition of West Indian Socie- 
ty ; but it may be added, as a material feature in the case, that to 
superintend the due execution of the proposed system, and to 
ensure to the masters and apprentices a fair and impartial ad- 
ministration of the laws which regulate their mutual relations, 
a body of gentlemen wdl be sent from this country, to act as 
special magistrates, unconnected with local prejudices, indepen- 
dent of colonial influence, whose presence, dispersed as they 
will be throughout the Islands, cannot but give confidence to 
all classes, inspire a freedom of increased connection with the 
Mother Country, and of secure participation in the impartial 
administration of the law. Much, no doubt, remains to be 
done, for the purposes of police, of religious instruction, and 
of general education : but we doubt not that the provisions 
will be matured in a spirit of wise and liberal policy, and that 
on those important matters the Colonial Legislatures will cor- 
dially adopt the views, and co-operate with the exertions of the 
British Parliament, the Government, and the Nation. 

FINANCE. 

To carry retrenchment into our public establishments, so 
far as can possibly be done without impairing, their efficiency; 
and to apply the surplus revenue, whether arising from increas- 
ed consumption, or diminished expenditure, to the relief of 
those branches of industry on which taxation most severely 
and injuriously presses; are the principles of financial policy 
professed by the present Government. 

We shall endeavour to give a brief outline of the measures 
adopted with these views — shewing, on the one hand, the re- 
ductions effected in the Public Expenditure, and, on the other, 
the relief afforded by taxes repealed or reduced. 

In 1830, when the present Government came into office, 
the total net income of the country was, in round numbers, 
50,000,000/., of this sum, 35,000,000/. were absorbed in the 
payment of the Debt, Civil List, Half-pay of the Army and 
Navy, Superannuated and Retired Allowance to Civil Officers, 
and other fixed charges : leaving about 15,000,000/. suscepti- 
ble of reduction, exclusive of any diminution which might be 
effected in the expenses of collection. 

It is important that this distinction should be borne in mind ; 
because, either from ignorance or malevolence, or from both, 
it is repeatedly and pertinaciously asserted — How paltry the 
reduction of a million or two on fifty millions ! We respect- 
fully beg our readers to hold fast by the fifteen millions, and to 



13 

dismiss the fifty millions altogether from their imaginations ; 
for, although the country, unhappily, has to raise the larger 
sum, the Government can only effect reduction on the smaller 
sum. To confound two things so essentially distinct, is a 
financial delusion — to be carefully avoided by those who would 
form a just estimate of the value and merit of the reductions 
which have been made, and of the probable extent to which 
they may eventually be carried. 

The Expenditure of the year ending the 5th April, 

1832, was £47,858,000 

The Expenditure of the year ending the 5th of 

April, 1833 .--,-- . 45,365,000 

Actual Diminution of Expenditure in 1833 - - 2,493,000 

The estimated Expenditure of the present year, 

ending 5th April, 1834 44,922,000 

Further reduction of Expenditure - - 443,000 

Total estimated diminution of expenditure between 

April, 1832, and April, 1834 .... 2,936,000 

A reduction will thus have been effected, during the years 
1831, 1832, and 1833, to the extent of about 3 millions upon 
that portion of the expenditure which admits of reduction, viz. 
about 15 millions. 

A comparison of the Estimates of the present with those of 
the preceding years, leads to the same satisfactory result. In 
1817, the Committee of Finance, after a laborious investigation, 
gave an estimate of the amount to which they thought it pos- 
sible to reduce the charge for the Army, Navy, Ordnance, and 
Miscellaneous Service. That estimate was 17,350,00?)/. 

From that period to the present, the following have been the 
Estimates annually voted. 

Amount voted. Amount voted. 

1818 .-- - £18,970,959 1826 £17,942,963 

1819 .... 18,488,447 1827 18,745,360 

1820 .... 19,673,717 1828 17776,999 

1821 .... 18,358,651 1829 17,626,855 

1822 .... 16,679,633 1830 16,648,762 

1823 .... 15,878,313 1831 17,782,487 

1824 .... 16,734,713 1832 15,411,571 

1825 .... 17,593,252 1833 14,622,219 

The estimates of the present year are, therefore, 2,720,513/. 
below the amount which the Committee of 1817 thought it 
possible to reach. They are 3,162,000/. less than the esti- 
mates of 1831, and 2,730,835/. less than the average of 1828, 
1829, and 1830, being the three years of the preceding Gov- 
ernment. 



14 



The Duke of Wellington, during these three years, carried 
into effect many vigorous measures of economy. In this res- 
pect we are ready to admit the merit of his Government, but 
on the same ground we claim still higher praise for those who 
followed; their task was more difficult; superfluous offices had 
been already greatly diminished, and farther reduction was to 
be effected on a diminished expenditure. "We have reaped 
the harvest of reduction," said a member of the late govern- 
ment, "and left only the gleanings to our successors :" — these 
then are the gleanings — they equal the harvest in amount, and 
far exceed it in the difficulty of the gathering. 

The reductions which have been made in the estimates for 
the Army, Navy, Ordnance, and Miscellaneous Services, will 
be shewn by the annual charge for the last three years. — 

Navy. Army. Ordnance. Miscellaneous. 

1831 £5,842,835 7,551,000 1,478,900 2,900,400 

1832 £4,505,000 7,006,000 1,634,800 2,133,900 

1833 £4,658,000 6,673,000 1,455,200 1,835,000 

We insert a most important account, showing some of the 
diminutions made in the Salaries of the principal Officers of 
State, of the Judges, Commissioners, and others, whose allow- 
ances exceed 1,000/. per annum, and also the reduction in the 
Diplomatic Department. 

JImount of Reductions in Salaries o/l,000/. and upwards, since 1830. 





Emolu- 


Emolu- 


Saving. 




ments in 


ments in 






1829. 


1833. 




Treasury .... 


£20,900 


£14,800 


£6,100 


Home, Foreign, and Colonial Depart- 








ments .... 


52,828 


36,100 


16,728 


Amiralty .... 


19,940 


7,500 


12,440 


Army - 


17,876 


8,455 


9,421 


King's Household, &c. 


11,286 


2,000 


9,286 


Customs .... 


64,520 


18,400 


46,120 


Excise ----- 


14,300 


7,200 


7,100 


Judges and Courts of Law 


52,492 


38,000 


14, 192 


Ireland - 


49,903 


32,989 


16,914 


Colonial Agents, &c. - 


5,305 


1,300 


4,005 


Miscellaneous - - - - 


6,298 


- 


6,298 


DIPLOMATIC AND CONSULAR OFFICES. 








Ambassadors - - - - 


55,300 


45,900 


9,400 


Envoys Extraordinary, and Ministers 








Plenipotentiary ... 


50,300 


38.900 


11,400 


Ministers resident abroad 


14,200 


10,750 


3,450 


Secretaries - 


15,000 


11,375 


3,625 


Consuls, &c. - - - - 


45,450 


21,800 


22.650 


General Total 


494,898 1 


295,469 


199,429 



15 

During the years 1S31 and 1832 the total number of offices 
reduced on the several establishments amounted to 1265, and 
their salaries to 220,000/. From the retired list 506 persons 
have also been brought into active employment, as vacancies 
occurred. This sacrifice of their patronage, proves the sin- 
cere desire of the Government to effect every possible saving. 

But it is not only in the expenditure of the public income 
that great saving has been effected; the expense of collecting 
it has also been greatly diminished; indeed, to such an extent 
has this been carried in some departments, that it may reason- 
ably be doubted, whether such reductions, in justice to the fair 
trader, and without risk to the revenue, can be carried further. 
In the Customs, during the years 1831 and 1832, not less than 

414 offices have been abolished, and a saving of 29,000/. 

effected. 
In the Excise, during the years 1830, 1S31, and 1832, the 

number of persons reduced was - 507 

Amount of reduction in salaries ----- £68,000 
Official expenses reduced ..... 72,500 

Superannuation and retiring- allowances diminished - - 4,750 

Total annual reduction .... £145,250 

The same spirit of economy has been carried into the colo- 
nial establishments. The salaries and emoluments of Go- 
vernors, Judges, Collectors, and Superintendents, have all 
been submitted to a most rigorous examination, and their re- 
spective offices and establishments have been more or less re- 
duced. 

1. In the establishments at Malta, Gibraltar, Cape of Good 
Hope, Barbary Consuls, Fernando Po, Gold Coast, Ceylon, 
New South Wales, Van Dieman's Land, Swan River, and 
Mauritius, — 

The total charge, when the reduction commenced, was - £411,745 

The immediate saving ..... 72,703 

And the prospective saving to .... 61,318 

Making a total saving of 134,021 

2. In the establishments at Lower and Upper Canada, Nova 
Scotia, New Brunswick, Bermuda, &c. 

The charge at commencement of reduction was - - £59,890 

The immediate saving was .... 17,752 

The prospective saving ----- 21,549 

Total saving ...... 39,301 

3. In Trinidad, British Guiana, Bahamas, and St. Lucia, — 

The charge at commencement of reduction was - - £101,082 

Immediate saving was ----- 43,877 

Prospective saving ..... 7,416 

Total saving ...... 51,293 



16 

The total amount of reduction, therefore, in the Colonies, is 
as follows: 

Charge, when reduction commenced, was - - £572,717 

Immediate saving .... £134,332 

Prospective saving .... 90,283 

Total saving ------ 224,615 

Charge as it will eventually stand ... £348,102 

But there are persons, who, in the genuine spirit of detrac- 
tion being compelled to admit the amount of reduction, con- 
tend that it has been effected by the sacrifice of the inferior offi- 
cers. The answer to this charge is, that 

The average salary of persons reduced under the late Go- 
vernment, amounts to - - . - -£117161 
Under the present Government to - - - - 226 7 8 

But an answer still more triumphant can be given. The 
first experiment of reduction made by the present Government 
was upon themselves; and on the salaries of the higher politi- 
cal offices of the State, amounting to 143,617/., a saving of 
21,394/. has been effected, being an actual deduction of 15 per 
cent. 

We have now alluded to the different departments in which 
reductions have been made, and the extent to which they have 
been carried; the vast number of offices and establishments 
abolished or reduced, will give some idea of the labor required 
to carry them into effect. Their aggregate amount may, in 
round numbers, be stated at 3.000,000/. ; reducing the expen- 
diture susceptible of reduction from 15,000,000/ to 12,0()(),00i)/. 
The whole of this sum of 3,000,000/. has been applied to give 
relief from taxation, and the following statement will bhow, 
that in administering this relief, the object which the Govern- 
ment had in view, was to stimulate industry, and to augment 
the resources of the country, by promoting the interests of 
trade, manufactures and commerce. In this object they have 
persevered at the risk, and almost at the expense, of their own 
popularity. 

Relief from taxation in 1831 and 1832. 

Printed Goods -..-.. £550,000 

Coals and Slates ...... 900,000 

Candles ....... 500,000 

Hemp, Drugs, &c. - - . - . - 140,000 



2,090,000 
Deduct impost on cotton wool .... 300,000 

Total relief £1,790,000 



17 



Further relief, effected durin 

Tiles .... 

Murine insurances - 
Advertisements - - - 
Assessed taxes and farming stock 
Cotton wool ... 
Soap .... 


g 


the present session: 

In 1833 
In 1831-32 


£37,000 
100,000 
75,000 
440,000 
300,000 
593, '.00 




l,545,0t0 

1,790,0C0 




£3,335,0CO 



The various duties repealed or reduced by Lord Althrop, 
are as follow: 

Printed Cottons, Coals and Slates, Candles, Tiles, Small Receipt Stamp3, 
Land Tax on Pensonal Estates, Duty on Pamphlets, on Travellers or Riders, 
on Clerks, Book-keepers and Office-men, Overseers, Managers, Shopmen, 
Warehousemen, and Cellarnun, Duty on Tax Carts, and Horse Tax payable 
by Market Gardeners, — repealeu. 

' Advertisement duty, Soap duty, House Tax on Shops, and House Tax 
payable by Licensed Victuallers, — reduced one half. 

ilemp, Drugs, Marine Insurances, Cotton Wool, — reduced. 

Tax on Houses, of 10/ value — reduced one third. 

Tax on Houses from 10/. to 18/. — reduced progressively. 

The Government might have gained more applause, if they 
had gratified the Counties by a reduction of the Malt Duty 
or the Towns by a repeal of the House and Window Duty; 
but we beg the most clamorous advocates for the repeal of 
the House Duty to remember this fact, that the total number 
of Houses in Great Britain is 2,846,179, and the number 
assessed to the House Tax, 4 30,617, leaving six-sevenths of 
the whole totally exempt: then let them tell us whether this 
Tax can be considered as one which presses exclusively, or 
even mainly, on the industrious poor. The Repeal of the 
Duties on Coals, Candles, Soap, and Leather, is felt even in 
the lowly tenement, where Assessed Taxes are unknown; at 
the same time we admit, that where distress from other causes 
exists, as in some districts in London, the pressure of these 
taxes is severe, and in all their irregularity is objectionable. 

Another objection has been made to the repeal of such du- 
ties as those upon Tax-Carts, Tiles, &c. In reply to this 
argument, we may appeal to the farmers of Essex, and Nor- 
folk, whose petitions loaded the table of the House of Com- 
mons, and to the tile manufacturers of Stafford and Middlesex, 
whose applications were before the Treasury. The fact is, 
the supposed insignificance of these taxes is only the dis- 
covery of those who wish to undervalue the reduction. 

In the public accounts it has been admitted, that simplici- 
ty has been introduced; no mystification is attempted, no de- 
3 



18 

ception practised; and as the value of this can be best apprecia- 
ted by one who has waded through masses of accounts, which 
almost seem designed to perplex and deceive, we may conclude 
by quoting the honorable testimony which Mr. Hume has 
borne to the merit of the Government in this respect: "I 
have always said, that one great advantage has been derived 
from the accession of the present Ministers to office. They 
have simplified the Civil List Charges, and brought them under 
the proper heads. I also give them every credit for laying 
open to inquiry every branch of expenditure; and there is now 
no department into which Members of the House cannot 
inquire, and no accounts connected with the Finances of the 
Country have been refused by the Noble Lord. The House, 
then, is now placed in a situation, in which, with a little trouble 
it can have any statement of the national finances that any 
honorable Member can wish for." 

Navy and Jirmy. — There is no department of the Go- 
vernment in which more effectual reductions have taken 
place than the expenses of the Navy. The same rigid eco- 
nomy which marked the estimates of 1S32, marks the estimates 
of this year. 

In 1829 the sum voted was - - - £5,878,794 

1830 ...... 5,594,955 

1831 ...... 5,870,551 

1832 - - - - - - 4,878,634 

1833 ...... 4,658.134 

As regards the estimates of 1831, these must be in some mea- 
sure taken as those of the former government, as, when the pre- 
sent Ministers succeeded to office, they were, in fact, in a great 
measure prepared. The estimates for this year are nearly a 
million below of those 1830; and as regards the last year, are 
less by 220,000/. 

It is important to observe, that this reduction of nearly a 
million, was made entirely on what is termed the Effective 
Establishment; the non-effective, viz. the half pay, superannu- 
ation, &c. (amounting to nearly a third of the whole expenses) 
being a fixed charge. 

A reduction of 74,078/. per annum, in the Civil Estab- 
lishment of the Navy, has been made since the present Min- 
isters came into office, of which 16,800/. was in respect of sala- 
ries above 800/. a year.* 

* 12 Commissioners - - £14,200 

1 Paymaster of Marines 1,000 

61 Superior Officers of Yards 19,712 

37 Inferior Ditto - 3,885 

102 Clerks - - 33,276 

_______ »- 

213 £74,073 



19 

The debt of the Navy, which in 1830 was 1,314,000/. is 
now reduced to 977,000/. 

That these reductions have not been made at the expense 
of the efficiency of the service, is shewn by the fact, that 
two ships of 120 guns have been launched in the present 
year, one of 92 guns, and several frigates, and that there is 
more timber, &c. in the dock yard, ready for use, than when 
the Duke of Wellington quitted office*. 

Again, it may be observed, that the services performed by 
the Navy in the last year (almost as considerable as would be 
requisite in a time of war,) afford ample proof that those 
extensive reductions have in nowise diminished its efficiency. 

The ports of Hollard were blockaded during a northern 
winter, and not a ship of the blockading force was lost. The 
whole Indian trade of Holland was arrested, and scarcely a 
ship escaped. In the Tagus and the Douro, a large Naval 
force was required for the protection of the property and per- 
sons of British subjects, and to command the reluctant neu- 
trality of Spain. A large squadron is at present at the mouth 
of the Dardanelles, for the purpose of upholding our influence 
in a quarter intimately connected with our maritime interests. 
The agitated state of the Slave Colonies, has made an increas- 
ed Naval force necessary in the West Indies, and the Mauri- 
tius. If, therefore, the reductions already stated have been 
made at a time when such important services were required, 
it may fairly be inferred, that great as the reductions have 
been, a more settled state of our foreign relations will admit 
of a further reduction of the force itself, and consequently a 
still greater diminution of expenditure in this department. 

In addition to the reduction in the departments of the Navy, 
the whole subject of Army and Navy appointments was 
referred to a committee, and the names of the persons selected 
gave a full warrant that the inquiry would be searching, and 
the reduction as unsparing as was consistent with the efficiency 
of the service. 

The committee have come to certain resolutions, whereby 
the principle of the abolition of all sinecures is announced, and 

* An account of the quantities of Hemp, Cordage, and Timber, in store 
on the 31st of December, 1830, and 30th June, 1833: — 

IN STORE. 

31st Dec. 1830. 30th June, 1833. 

Hemp 7,394 Tons. 11,446 Tons. 

Cordage 3,503 3,435 



10,894 14,881 

Timber 56,633 Loads. 60,717 Loads. 



20 

they propose to abolish prospectively all sinecure garrison ap- 
pointments, and to substitute a scale of rewards for distin- 
guished services, the amount of which is fixed at S,000/. a 
year. To ensure as far as possible the best distribution of this 
fund; to prevent its misapplication, by being lavished on fa- 
vourites, instead of being the reward of veterans, the 
names of those on whom it is to be conferred, are to be laid 
annually before Parliament, so that the responsibility for the 
due distribution rests with the Ministers, and will be open to 
public animadversion. 

All Civilians are immediataly to vacate garrison appoint- 
ments, except where special grounds for their not doing so can 
be shewn. The large income derived by the Governor of 
Gibraltar from local revenues, and Lord Rosslyn's sinecure, are 
prospectively abolished. 

Some savings are also proposed to arise from the mode of 
paying for the clothing, and for the pay of colonels of regi- 
ments. The cases of many general oihcers, who attained in 
IS 14 the unattached pay, without having performed services 
which entitled them to it, are lo be reconsidered, and the staff 
at head-quarters is recommended to be reduced. 

Of the sinecures in the Navy, only those of the Vice and 
Rear Admiral of England are to be retained. The Lieutenant 
and Major General, and Colonels of Marines, are to be abol- 
ished, and an annual sum equal to their pay is proposed, (as 
in the case of the Army,) to be substituted. as a reward for dis- 
tinguished services. A strong opinion is expressed against 
Brevets, or the creation of Flag Officers, unless urgently cal- 
led for by public necessity. The total amount of present 
saving will be about 16,800/,, and the prospective saving about 
47,80<)/. ; to which may be added the saving to be deduced 
from the appropriation of the revenues of the Crown in Guern- 
sey and Jersey, and that arising from a reduction of the staff 
at head-quarters. The amount either of the present or future 
savings may be small, but the principle thus established by the 
Committee is most important, and will go far towards recon- 
ciling the country to expenses which henceforward cannot be 
misapplied. 

There is one branch of the Finance of the country which the 
hand of Reform has never reached; for amidst all the various 
inquiries which have of late years been directed into the Pub- 
lic Expenditure, the Excise* has been by much ingenuity 
kept untouched, as a kind of preserve for the breeding of pa- 

* The Commission which issued at the s'.i.sfarestion of Sir H. Pamell, some 
years ago, was confined to Scotland and Ireland. 



21 

tronage. Year after year has heaped vexatious statutes upon 
statute till, at last, their provisions, from their very absurdity 
and complexity, became almost a dead letter; and the officers 
have, in many instances, ceased to regard them; but the staff 
has been kept up, notwithstanding, from the very institution 
of the Excise, its vexatious and oppressive regulations have 
been a source of constant reproach. Even the Tory Johnson, 
defines Excise, as "a hateful tax levied upon commodities, 
and adjudged not by the common judges of property, but by 
wretches hired by those to whom the Excise is paid." 

In the beginning of this Session, the Ministry proceeded to 
break in on this hallowed ground of patronage; and to search 
into the vexations and evils of a system which all had depre- 
cated, but which seemed to be doomed to perpetual continu- 
ance. No hope, of course, could be held out for the removal 
of one of the powerful sources of taxation: yet much might be 
done in repealing unnecessaay and vexatious regulations, and 
in abolishing useless offices. In April last, a commission was 
appointed to inquire into the management and collection of the 
Excise Revenue, with a view not only of diminishing the ex- 
pense of the different departments, but of relieving, as much 
as possible, the public and the different trades, from the inter- 
ference of the Excise. The placing Sir Henry Parnell at the 
head of this commission, was, at once, a guarantee that the in- 
quiry would be searching and effectual; and a proof that the 
Government were inclined to select the fittest person for the 
examination, even though he might be found in the ranks of 
their opponents. These Commissioners have already made 
one report, in which they recommend the abolition of all Ex- 
cise supervision on Tea. The advantage and relief to be de- 
rived from this, the first fruits of the labors of the Commission 
may be judged of, when it is stated, that the number of dealers 
who will thus be relieved from a harassing, useless, and op- 
pressive inquisition, amounts to above one hundred thousand. 

A second report, respecting Wine, is in great forwardness; 
which, it is understood, will be to the same effect as that on 
Tea. The survey on Beer, which is still kept up to the in- 
convenience of the trade, and, one should almost suppose, for 
no other purpose, as the duties have been repealed, must share 
the same fate. The savings, it is understood, which will result 
from the removal of this heap of vexatious and useless inter- 
ference, including some minor reductions in contemplation, 
will amount to little less than 100,000/. per annum. 

Besides this, it is understood, that the Commissioners will 
recommend the total reduction of duty on many small articles, 



22 

in which the expense of collection comes to nearly the amount 
of the Duty collected. 

BANK CHARTER. 

To the measures we have already described, is to be added, 
the renewal of the Bank of England Charter, and the measures 
proposed for the regulation of Joint Stock Banking Compa- 
nies. 

A committee of Secrecy had been appointed during the pre- 
ceding Session, to report on the expediency of renewing the 
exclusive privileges of the Bank: the inquiry continued from 
the end of May till the close of the Session ; but though much 
valuable evidence was obtained, no report was agreed to, by 
which Government might have been assisted in the settlement 
of a question involving many interests, and surrounded by 
many difficulties. 

The privileges of the Bank of England have been assailed 
on the one hand, as an odious monopoly; and on the other, 
they have been defended as a necessary protection to the pub- 
lic against fluctuations in the amount of paper money. 

We are justified in asserting, that this latter opinion is that 
which is entertained by men whose experience, talent, and at- 
tention to the subject, entitle them to be received as the best 
authorities, on a question requiring very close consideration. 
It has been clearly shewn that competition, however generally 
beneficial, must in such cases lead to pernicious results: that it 
has a tendency in periods of increasing prices, unduly to ex- 
pand the currency, thus stimulating improvident speculation; 
which, in its turn, is followed by panic, sudden contraction, 
and distress — that one Bank of Issue is enabled to control and 
regulate the issues according to the Foreign Exchanges, with 
not only the least, but also the most gradual fluctuation: and 
that the mode which the Bank of England has recently adopt- 
ed for effecting this object, is at once simple and efficacious. 

After much bitter experience, the truth of some principles 
at least has been recognized. Enactments against the expor- 
tation of gold coin are no longer heard of, and a system has 
at length been established, which under the control of publici- 
ty, promises to secure to the country a sound currency, and 
to afford every legitimate facility to mercantile transactions. 
On these grounds Lord Althorp vindicated the propriety of 
calling on the Legislature to renew, under certain conditions, 
the most important privileges of the Bank of England. 

Our limits necessarily confine us to the statement of the 
principles which appear to have guided the Government in 
conducting a negotiation, involving many details of intricacy 
and difficulty, and the subject of long and repeated discussion. 



23 

These were — 

The monthly publication of their accounts. 

The repayment of a portion of the capital. 

The partial repeal of the Usury Laws, which now impede 
the action of the Bank, and of all other similar establish- 
ments. 

The annual payment by the Bank of A 20,000, in return for 
the privileges continued to it. 

Rendering the Bank of England Notes a legal tender, ex- 
cept at the Bank itself or its branches. 

The quarterly return of the amount of circulation of all other 
Banks ; — and 

Certain provisions, to which we shall presently allude, for 
the improvement of Joint Stock Banks. 

All these measures are more or less important, and their ob- 
ject and advantages were distinctly explained and enforced by 
Lord Althorp on introducing thesubjectto Parliament. They 
have received the sanction of the highest authority. 

With respect to one of the provisions of the Bill, it must 
be admitted that much diversity of opinion has been expres- 
sed, and much good, as well as much evil predicted from it. 

Defended by Tooke, Baring, Smith and Horsly Palmer, op- 
posed by Peel, Herries and others, whose opinions have equal 
claims to consideration, the "Legal Tender," may be regard- 
ed by many with doubt, not unmixed with apprehension. De- 
preciation of Bank of England paper, will it is affirmed, be the 
consequence of this measure: and it is probable that it was 
supported by some, because they hoped such would be the re- 
sult; while it was opposed by others, who acknowledging its- 
many advantages, dreaded this effect. It is not easy to imag- 
ine on what foundation they rested their hopes and their fears, 
unless it were some vague notion of a connection between this 
measure and that of rendering paper absolutely inconverti- 
ble. No two measures can be more essentially distinct. 
While Bank paper is immediately convertible in London, its 
depreciation there, will we presume, be admitted to be impos- 
sible; and while its value is maintained in London, the cen- 
tre of the money transactions of the kingdom — and the mark- 
et to which the Country Banker must resort, the likelihood of 
its depreciation elsewhere is not only inexplicable by any pro- 
cess of reasoning, but at variance with every fact that bears on 
the subject. 

On the other hand, the advantages of the measures are man- 
ifest, it enables the Country Banker to meet a sudden run, 
without incurring the expense and delay of transporting the 
precious metals; and affords to the Bank of England that pro- 



24 

tection so essential to its security under the most trying of all 
circumstances — the occurrence of a sudden internal demand, 
the consequence of commercial panic after a long continued 
drain for exportation. 

It will be borne in mind that such a panic is most likely to 
occur, when the Foreign Exchanges having been for a consid- 
erable period adverse to the country, an unnatural contraction 
of the currency, too frequently attended with commercial em- 
barrassment, has been produced. The demand of the country 
banker at such a moment is regulated, not by the amount of 
his wants, but by the extent of his fears. 

The treasure of the bank being then at its lowest ebb, such a 
demand is so peculiarly dangerous, that it may be doubted 
whether a single bank of issue, notwithstanding its decided 
advantages, would be desirable, unless it received that effectual 
protection which this measure affords. 

The allowance retained by the bank has been censured by 
some as too great ; but those who take an enlarged view of 
the important functions of the bank of England, as the great 
centre and source of the circulation of the kingdom, charged 
with maintaining its value, with supporting it in times of dis- 
credit, and with distributing free of expense the requisite sup- 
ply of gold, by means of its branches, (establishments of great 
public utility, but to the bank sources of expense rather than 
of profit,) will not be disposed to censure the Government for 
not wringing from the bank the utmost concession which it was 
possible to exact. 

Some doubt having arisen with respect to the extent of the 
existing privileges which Government had agreed to confer on 
the bank, it was ascertained that they had no right to prevent 
the establishment in London of Joint Stock Banks of Deposit, 
and a declaratory clause to this effect was introduced into the 
new act. 

The renewal of the bank charter offered a favourable oppor- 
tunity for introducing certain regulations for the improvement 
of Joint Stock Banks. Established after the panic of 1825, at 
a time when all the evils of banking were attributed to one sin- 
gle cause, the limitation of the number of partners, the sole 
remedy was sought for in withdrawing that restriction. The 
formation of large companies was encouraged, on whom, as on 
private bankers, the privilege of issuing bank notes was confer- 
red, without any other security to the public than that which 
was derived from the increased number of partners. Many 
highly respectable establishments were formed, others of an 
equivocal nature sprang up. To secure to the country the ad- 
vantages which Joint Stock Banking Companies are capable of 



25 

conferring, and to give them higher claims to public confidence, 
was the object of the Government. 

It vvas proposed by Lord Althorp to relieve them from cer- 
tain restrictions to which they are at present subject, and to 
empower the Crown to grant them charters on complying with 
certain conditions, of which the most important was to pay up 
their capitals, and lodge a portion, as security, in the public 
funds. These were conditions which it was conceived no res- 
pectable establishment could have an)- difficulty in acceding to; 
which several had applied for as a protection, and which were 
calculated to restrain the proceedings of those whose hopes of 
profit are derived from encouraging a spirit of reckless specu- 
lation, and who impose on the public by appealing to the mag- 
nitude of a capital that exists only on paper. 

Such were the measures proposed by the Government — such 
the objects which they had in view ; and it is not saying too 
much to assert that the plan, when announced, received, as to 
its essential provisions, very general approbation. To the part 
of the measure that affects the Joint Stock Banks, opposition, 
however, began to manifest itself. The country bankers took 
the alarm. The immediate substitution of Bank of En- 
gland paper was declared to be the necessary consequence of 
limited liability, and the extinction of the country banker the 
inevitable result. The Government, desirous that no unne- 
cessary alarm should be excited, and that a complete conviction 
of the utility and necessity of these provisions should be felt, 
consented to postpone them till another session, leaving the 
subject before the public, that a more decided opinion might 
be pronounced on its merits. In the mean time an Act has 
been passed, by which Joint Stock Banks are permitted to ren- 
der their notes payable in London, and to draw bills on London 
under 50/. 

Although an important part of the measure as first introdu- 
sed into Parliament has thus been deferred, that which affects 
the Bank of England has been brought to a successful termina- 
tion, and the principles on which a sound and safe system of 
paper circulation may be conducted, have been distinctly re- 
cognized, and confirmed by Parliament. 

Connected, however, with this subject, and of far greater 
importance than any law which has been passed upon it, is an 
Act of the House of Commons itself, not proceeding from the 
Government, or from any political party, but supported by 
men of all political creeds, and of all shades of opinion upon 
other topics — we allude to the resolution against any deprecia- 
tion of the standard of value as by law established. Whoever 
recollects the language held in an out of Parliament at the be- 

4 



26 

ginning of the session ; the meetings at Birmingham and Rich- 
mond Terrace ; the manifestos of the Currency Club; the ru- 
mours which were circulated ; the highly raised hopes and loud 
boastings of a certain party — will admit this event to have 
been as important in its consequences to the country, as hon- 
ourable to the Reformed House. The immense majority by 
which the resolution was carried, the triumph in argument 
achieved by its supporters, has crushed for ever the expecta- 
tions of those who would unsettle all the monetary transactions 
of the Empire, and has given a degree of confidence to the in- 
dustrious and productive classes of the community, which no 
other event could have inspired. Had the House of Commons 
performed no other act but this, it would have sufficiently 
shewn itself worthy of its high mission. 

EAST INDIA CHARTER. 

The settlement of the question as to the renewal of the 
Charter of the East India Company, and the China Trade, 
was one of the most important measures submitted to Parlia- 
ment; and none, except, perhaps, the Slave Trade question, 
was surrounded with greater difficulties. 

Whether the monopoly enjoyed by the Company, should be 
abolished? — and how, if that monopoly were abolished, the 
assets and liabilities of the Company were to be distributed be- 
tween Commerce and Territory? — whether or not a share in 
the Administration of our Indian Empire should still be confi- 
ded to the Court of Directors ? — and how, if that course were 
adopted, the interests of the rulers could be made to coincide 
with the interests of the subjects ? — whether or not Europeans 
should be allowed to settle in India ? — and how, if so admitted, 
they should be restrained from excesses injurious to the Natives, 
and dishonourable to our Government ? — it will be admitted, 
were questions of great moment, and of no inconsiderable diffi- 
culty. 

The measure introduced by the Ministers for their solution, 
was, with some slight modifications, adopted by Parliament. 

The trade with China has been thrown open. 

The long and complicated account between Commerce and 
Territory, has been settled by a compromise, the advantage of 
which is shewn by its having been approved by moderate men 
on both sides. 

A litigation which must have lasted for years, which never 
could have ended in a satisfactory adjudication, and during the 
pendency of which it would have been impossible to entrust 
the Company with any political functions, has thus been aver- 
ted. The proprietors of India Stock have become creditors 



27 

of the country which is placed under their care. They will 
henceforth have a strong interest to improve its revenues : they 
can improve its revenues only by exerting their power for the 
maintenance of order, and the encouragement of industry. 

The anomalous and pernicious union of imperial and econo- 
mical functions in one body is at an end. 

India is thrown open to European enterprise, and European 
capital. The legislative power of the Supreme Government 
has been strengthened. A commission has been established 
for the purpose of ascertaining, digesting, and as far as may be, 
assimilating those undefined and conflicting laws ; the diversity 
and vagueness of which are among the heaviest grievances of 
India. The patronage, which has been bestowed by favour, is 
henceforward to be placed under restrictions which will ensure 
a constant supply of the most intelligent servants. 

In the constitution of the Board of Control changes have 
been made, which, while they increase the efficiency of that 
department, diminish the Parliamentary influence of the Min- 
isters. 

And, finally, every office under the Company has been 
thrown open to every British subject, without distinction of 
colour, descent, caste, or religion. 

Sir Robert Peel remarked, that it had been discussed in very 
thin houses, and attributed this to the general approbation with 
which its provisions were regarded by public men of all par- 
ties. Mr. O'Connell designated it as the Great Charter of the 
Indian people. 

TRADE. 

During no session of any preceding Parliament have the in- 
terests of commerce received greater attention, or have mea- 
sures more important to the manufacturing and trading popu- 
lation of the country been submitted to its consideration. It 
is with pleasure, too, that we find the Reformed House of 
Commons adopting and even extending the enlightened prin- 
ciples of Commercial policy, which for some years have pre- 
vailed in our Legislature. When we recollect the often 
repeated statement of the sticklers for monopolies and restric- 
tions, that these are the opinions of visionaries and theorists, 
discountenanced by all practical men, it is something to find 
the vast majority of the representatives of the Manufacturing 
and Commercial Towns, practical men themselves, adhering to 
these principles, and loudly disclaiming any advocacy of the 
old system. 

The fluctuations of Commerce are, to this extent, under 
the control of Government. The wisest Government cannot 



28 

raise it to immediate prosperity, but the weakest has power 
to injure or destroy it. It may suffer under good Go- 
vernment, but cannot long prosper under bad; and, in the 
absence of Government, must perish. Though this, perhaps, 
is not often distinctly stated by commercial men, it is felt by 
them; and hence arises the sensibility of commerce to the con- 
duct of Government, even when not directly affected by it. 
The manufacturers of Lille were not directly affected by the 
Revolution of 1830; but their works ceased within four days 
after the news arrived. Lille was perfectly tranquil, but their 
confidence, in the future prevalence of law over violence, was 
impaired. And thus, it will always be found, that, whenever 
men's reliance on the stability of the institutions of their 
country is shaken, the first proof of its being shaken, is the de- 
pression of trade. Some of the most alarming periods of 
English history, have occurred during the last three years. 
The most formidable, perhaps, was the period when the To- 
ries, frightened at the evils which they had permitted, or occa- 
sioned, abandoned their posts: and this was the period of great 
embarrassment in trade. Confidence was inspired by the 
accesion of their successors, and trade revived. It was felt, 
however, that the permanent stability of the institutions of the 
country depended on their being reformed; and that, under our 
balanced Constitution, the enemies of Reform might resist its 
peaceful accomplishment. The fear either of the loss of the 
Reform Bill, or of Reform being carried by means of Revo- 
lution, occasioned another period of commercial distress, 
which gradually wore away after the passing of the Bill. 
With the present prospect of the permanence of the Govern- 
ment, and of the continuance of the liberal commercial policy 
they have pursued, trade appears to be steadily increasing.* 
The industry of the country is in full activity; and though the 
profits of capital may be less than during the feverish period 
of the late war, their general amount is larger, and their benefit 
is spread over a broader surface. 

We have treated, under other heads, of the renewal of the 
Bank and East India Charters — both, however, measures so 
important to the interests of Trade, that they must be consi- 
dered as bearing on our Commercial prosperity in a far greater 
degree than any Legislative enactments which have for a long 
series of years come before Parliament. 

* The following table is some evidence that trade has not suffered by the 
substitution of a reformed for an unref'ormed Parliament: 
An account of the quantities of the undermentioned articles entered for 

Home consumption in the United Kingdom in the month ended 5th July, 

1K>5, compared with the corresponding month of the preceding year. 

Also a similar account for the balf rear ended the 5th Julv, 1833 and 1833, 



29 

The settlement of the East India Company's Charter, as we 
have before stated, destroys the monopoly of the China trade, 
and opens to our manufacturers and our merchants, that rich 
field for their enterprise and their industry. Facilities for 
conducting this branch of commerce, as well as considerable 
relief from taxation, upon what has become a necessary of 
life to the people of this country, we mean Tea, have been 
given by a subsequent bill for regulating the importation of 
this article. Hitherto the sale of Tea has been confined to 



together with a Statement of the declared value of some of the principal 
articles of British Produce and Manufactures exported during the same 
period, and the gross and net produce of the custom's duties. 





:s. 


Quantities entered fur Consumption. 


ARTICLE 


In the Month ended 


In half year ended 






5 th July. 


5th July. 


Bark for tanners use. 


1832. 


1833. 


1832. 


1833. 




cwts. 


51,475 


75,694 


251,620 


303,368 


Coffee 


lbs. 


1,808,357 


2,063,503 


11,269,594 


12,058,982 


Indigo 


lbs. 


159,296 


267,796 


1,099,066 


1,354,722 


Silk, raw, - 


lbs. 


216,886 


282,369 


1,304,270 


1,448,496 


, waste - 


lbs. 


76,005 


30,558 


409,341 


308,194 


, thrown 


lbs. 


26,891 


24,520 


149,077 


149,935 


Skins 


No. 


151,890 


325,352 


925,169 


1,369,428 


Wine 


galls. 


504,630 


526,329 


2,990,789 


3,138,191 


Wool, cotton 


lbs. 


26,600,508 


62,261,879 


133,950,651 


181,465,443 


sheep & lamb. lbs. 


1,485,740 


2,987,419 


8,488,912 


13,275,967 



ARTICLES 

OF BRITISH PRODUCE 
AMD MANUFACTURES. 



Coals 

Cotton manufactures 



yarn 



Linen manufactures 
Silk manufactures - 
Woollen manufactures 

Total Custom's Duties. 
Gross receipt of duties 
Net receipt of do. 



Declared value of the Exports. 



In the month ended 
5th July. 



1832. 
£ 25,570 
977,537 
372,407 
146,565 
41,030 
621,091 



£1,580,076 
£1,482,329 



1833. 
£30,048 
2,069,748 
487,710 
167,316 
69,491 
767,433 



1,553,002 
1,500,988 



In the half year ended 
5lh July. 



1832. 
£113.510 
6.589.877 
2.244.031 
888.424 
298.155 
2.906.606 



9.186.068 
8.505.738 



1833. 
£108.816 
7.952.523 
2.289.472 
1.102.640 
395.002 
3.392.929 



9.081.207 
8.661.522 



30 

one place, the port of London. Under this bill, the importa- 
tion will be permitted at every port of any importance, through- 
out the United Kingdom. The merchant of Liverpool, of 
Hull, of Glasgow, or of Cork, will, in future, import his cargo, 
or his parcel of Tea, at his own wharf, and lodge it in his own 
warehouse. The dealers of Manchester, and Leeds and Paisley, 
may supply themselves at the nearest port, and have no longer 
occasion to resort to London, to avvait the periodical sales of 
the Leadenhall Street Company. On the other hand, the 
duties, from ad valorem sums of 100/. per cent, have been 
changed to moderate duties, rated according to the quality of 
the Tea, which is divided into three classes, paying respec- 
tively, 1*. 6d., 2s. 2d. and 3*., affording, according to the sale 

An Account of the Number and Tonnage of Vessels which entered Inwards 
and cleared Outwards in the Ports of the United Kingdom in the month 
ended 5th July, 1833, compared with the corresponding month of the 
preceding year. — Also a similar Account for the half year ended 5th July, 
1832 and 1833, distinguishing British from Foreign Ships, and the Coast- 
ing Vessels from those employed in the Foreign Trade, and exclusive of 
Vessels in ballast. 





Entered Inwards. 


Entered Inwards. 




[n the Month ended 5th July. 


[n the Hf. Yr. ended 5th July. 




1832. 


1833. 


1832. 


1833. 


British, - - 
Foreign, - - 


Ves. 
808 
350 

1,158 


Tons. 
146,173 
53,294 


Ves. 
995 
448 


Tons. 
179,180 
67,026 


Ves. 

3,954 

1,963 


Tons. 
659,839 
276,820 

936,659 


Ves. 

4,229 
2,300 


Tons. 
714,689 
327,564 


Total, - - - 


199,467 


1,443 


246,206 


5,917 


6,529 


1042253 



COASTING VESSELS. 





Entered Inwards. 


Entered Inwards. 




In the Mh. ended 5th July. 


In the Half year ended 5th July. 




1832. 


1833. 


1832. 1 


1833. 


Employed 
between 
Great Bri- 
tain and Ire- 
land, 
Other 
Coasting 
vessels- 


Ves. 

813 

9,755 
10,567 


Tons. 

81,687 
716,810 


Ves. 

900 

9,583 
10,483 


Tons. 

91,989 
745,677 


Ves. 

4,988 
54,813 


Tons. 

519,071 
4063047 


Ves. 

4,818 
53,506 


Tons. 

523,562 
4,161,109 


Total, 


798,497 


837,366 


59.801 


4582118 


158,324 


4,684,671 



31 



prices of the last year, a reduction in duty, upon this impor- 
tant article, of from 15 to 25 per cent. 

A variety of other measures mark equally the attention 
they have received at the hands of the Reformed House and 
of the Government. Acting upon the principles avowed last 
session, the Government, at the very opening; of the present, 
resolved on devoting all that could be saved by economy, or 
spared from the exigencies of the State, to the relief ot pros- 
trated industry; to give additional facilities to our manufac- 
turing establishments, and remove restrictions which fettered 
the exertions of our skill and ingenuit}'. 

The duties on Soap, on Raw Cotton, on Marine Insurances, 
and on Advertisements, were greatly reduced; and as this ap- 
propriation of a large potion of surplus revenue precluded 
the possibility of relieving other great branches of commerce, 
that are oppressed by high duties, the Government applied 
the small additional relief they were able to afford, to the 
repeal or reduction of the duties on a number of articles, the 
sale of which was materially prejudiced by a system of taxa- 
tion which greatly increased their price, without any propor- 
tionate advantage to the revenue. Upon the principles pursued 
last session, when the duties upon upwards of 300 articles, 
apparently of small importance, but really of the greatest to 
the manufacturers of the country, were reduced more than 150 
different kinds of gums, dyes, semi-metals, and other articles, 
consumed in the Laboratory of Commerce, have been either 
admitted free of duty, or at a greatly reduced charge. 

The result of these reductions has been most successful, 
and it is shown what may be done by the judicious applica- 
tion of small means. The consumption of many of the arti- 
cles has more than doubled,* and they have been applied to a 
variety of purposes, from which their former high prices had 
excluded them. 

• Return for half year ending April 5, 1832, and April 5, 1833. 





1832. 


1833. 




lbs. 


lbs. 


Anatto, 


- 50,451 


. 124,188 


Balsam Copaiba, 


. 24,938 


- 59,937 


Boracic Acid, ■ 


- 216,181 


- 308,890 


Cocoa Nuts, 


- 313,074 


- 666,516 


Gum Animi, 


. 43,535 


. 70,651 


India Rubber, 


- 29,958 


- 178,676 


Manna, 


8,296 


- 20,797 


Mastic, 


8,106 


• 30,594 


Sena, 


- 55,678 


- 99,938 


Sponge, 


- 15,483 


. 25,006 


Valeria, 


- 57,071 


- 75,622 


Vermicelli and 


Macaroni, - 41,012 


- 79,864 



32 

The whole Commercial Laws of the Empire, its Navigation 
Laws, its Warehousing System, the Laws relating to its Colo- 
nial Possessions, the registry of shipping, the regulation of the 
customs, and the duties spread over one hundred Acts of Par- 
liament, have been consolidated and brought into one volume, 
to the great convenience both of the merchant and the revenue 
officer. In spite of the clamor of some ignorant and interest- 
ed individuals, a law has been introduced and passed, applying 
the principles of bonding to the great Manufacture of Sugar. 
The produce of all the world can now be imported into this 
country for refining, and the skill and capital of our manufac- 
turers in this branch of industry are no longer confined to the 
produce of our own Colonies, for the preparation of the sup- 
ply of refined sugar for the European markets; without, how- 
ever, any interference with the monopoly of the Colonists in 
the market for consumption at home. Whilst these measures, 
too, have been carried through at home, no efforts have been 
wanting on the part of the Government to extend and pro- 
mote our Foreign Trade, by influencing other States to adopt 
the same liberal policy which has been found so advantageous 
here. A commercial mission to France has ahead}' had the 
happiest effects. The removal of the prohibition on the export of 
Raw Silk from that country, an object declared last year, before 
a Committee of theHouseof Commons, to be of vital importance 
to our Silk Manufactories, has been already effected; but what 
is of far greater consequence, a change of public opinion, 
throughout the whole of the French Empire, upon this great 
subject, has taken place, which promises the most beneficial 
results to both countries. Freedom of Commerce has been 
the universal cry, and the manufacturing and commercial bo- 
dies take the lead in recommending the adoption of a sound 
and liberal system of commercial policy towards England. 

Nor has Parliament been less active, or less zealous in its 
endeavors to ascertain the actual condition of the manufactur- 
ing and commercial interests, than in its efforts to improve 
them. A Committee was appointed for this purpose at the sug- 
gestion of the declaimers about distress, and a laborious and ex- 
tended inquiry into all the principal branches of our national in- 
dustry has been carried on. The evidence has been laid before 
the public; and although no report, owing to the alleged want 
of time, has accompanied it, sufficient proof will be found in 
the testimoney of the principal witnesses, of the sound and 
healthy condition of all the great interests which were investi- 
gated. Indeed, the greatest of all, perhaps, consists in the ab- 
sence of any report, which, it is understood, was mainly caused 
by those Members of the Committee who were the loudest in 



33 

their complaints of the distressed condition of the country. 
Whilst those Members who entertained a different opinion of 
the condition of the state of the country, were most anxious 
to give an exposition of the results to which inquiry had led; 
those who demanded it, shrank from any report, conscious, 
that, if founded on the evidence, it could not support their 
own views, and were thus glad to shelter themselves under 
silence, from the exposure of the real truth. This speaks for 
itself. 

The attention of Parliament has not been confined to the 
interests of the higher or even of the middling classes of the 
Commercial community; it has heard the complaints of the 
workman as readily as those of his master. The Factory Bill 
was elaborately discussed, and there has been no question 
which has drawn forth more talent or information. The Mem- 
bers for the Manufacturing Towns took the most distinguished 
part in the debate. The House would probably have yielded 
to the dictates of its feelings, if Government had not interposed, 
at the risk of some unpopularity. The average labor of the 
working classes in the agricultural and manufacturing districts, 
being twelve hours a day, the reduction of it to ten, which 
must have been the inevitable result of Lord Ashley's Bill, 
would have proportionably affected the productive powers of 
the country; and the Government would not consent to this, 
without inquiring into the facts on which the measure was 
held necessary. A Commission of Inquiry was accordingly 
appointed, and although there may be a difference of opinion 
on the expediency of some of the medical questions issued by 
the Commissioners, a vast body of most valuable information 
on the state of the Manufacturing Districts was collected, upon 
which a Bill was substituted for Lord Ashley's not only less 
dangerous to the commercial prosperity of the country; but 
even better calculated to answer the benevolent purposes of 
those who conscientiously supported the original measure. 
This Bill reduces the daily labor of children; and what is of 
equal importance, provision is made in it for the education of 
the children of the manufacturing classes, and this too in a 
form which invites and admits of the co-operation of benevo- 
lent persons of all religious sects. Inspectors will be appoint- 
ed to give effect to the measure, and their exertions, if success- 
ful, will procure for the next generation the advantage of a 
manufacturing community of increased intelligence and mo- 
rality. 

LAW REFORMS. 

In enumerating the different labors of the Session, those re- 
lating to the Reform of the Law and the Law Courts are 
amongst the most important. What has been completed, and 
what is in progress, gives ample reason to expect that nearly 
5 



34 

the whole of that masterly outline chalked out by the present 
Lord Chancellor, in his Law Reform speech in the House of 
Commons, will ere long be filled up and perfected. The Courts 
of Common Law, the Court of Chancery, and the Privy Coun- 
cil, the Criminal Law, and the Laws of Real Property, have 
all experienced the benefit of the interference of Parliament; 
a Commission has issued for arranging the statute law; and it 
may be said, without exaggeration, that more has been done for 
our jurisprudence during the session, than during the whole of 
the preceding century. 

The administration of justice in the courts of Common Law, 
has been placed on an improved footing, by an Act for the 
Amendment of the Law, which removes many of the abuses 
which it is difficult to conceive should have been allowed to 
exist in the jurisprudence of an enlightened country. It au- 
thorizes the Jugdes to make regulations as to pleadings, so that 
the parties may know the exact question at issue, instead of 
being left to search for it in the maze of the record; and then 
obliged to bring up witnesses, at a vast expense, to prove facts 
which are not intended to be disputed. A security is given 
against unjust demands, by reducing from 20 years to 10, the 
period in which an action may be brought upon a Bond, ex- 
cept the creditor be under a legal disability, or there shall have 
been a written acknowledgment, or part payment of the debt 
during the interval. Many legal fictions and scholastic so- 
phims, which have survived the ends for which they were intro- 
duced, are destroyed. Pleas in abatement are limited and reg- 
ulated; the executors and administrators of a deceased person 
are no longer protected from actions by those whose real or 
personal property he may have injured. Juries are allowed to 
give interest in actions for goods or money: and what is far 
above all, variances in pleading are to be judged by their real 
importance, and not to condemn the unfortunate suitor to pay 
the penalty of an error which is wholly immaterial, by this 
loss of his action. 

The arbitration of suits is facilitated, by making the submis- 
sion of the parties final, whatever may be their disposition to 
revoke it, and the attendance of witnesses before the Arbitra- 
tor is enforced, — so that proceedings in arbitration are relieved 
from the objections which have been held to counterbalance 
their cheapness and convenience. 

The spirit of Reform has also intruded into the Court of 
Chancery, and shaken the prescriptive right which that Court 
seemed to possess to an immunity from the improvements 
which time had introduced into the administration of the other 
branches of the law. The Lord Chancellor brought a Bill for 
the reform of his Court into the House of Lords early in the 
Session. Such a Bill could not fail to call forth the opposition 



35 

not only of all the officers whose interests were to be effected 
by it, but also that of former Lord Chancellors, who having them- 
selves suffered the existence of the evils without an attempt to 
correct them, could not look without jealousy on a proceeding 
of their successor calculated to afford to the suitors that benefit 
which under the rule of his predecessors had been so long with- 
held from them. 

The bill was accordingly referred to a select committee, 
where the examination of witnesses lasted several weeks, and 
would probably have been continued to the end of the Session, 
as the only means of defeating the measure, had not the Lord 
Chancellor to avoid this evil, entered into a compromise with 
his opponents by postponing part of his plan to the next ses- 
sion. Thus mutilated, the bill descended to the Commons, 
and after it had undergone the ordeal of another committee 
there, was passed amidst the cheers of the whole House. This 
approbation had been well earned, for the measure, shorn as it 
is of its due proportions, is still most important. It strikes a 
a heavy blow at the root of two of the worst evils in the pro- 
ceedings of the court, the delay and the expense. These are 
necessarily to be found in the offices where the details of the 
business of the court are carried on-— the six clerk's office, 
the Registrars' office, and the Masters' office, and all were 
comprised in the bill as it was brought forward by the Chan- 
cellor; but the six clerks were wrenched from his grasp by 
their friends in the House of Lords, at least they saved the 
office, with all its abuses, at the expense of four of the six 
clerks ;* and the bill was confined to the Registrars and the 
Masters. Both these offices have undergone an entire revi- 
sion. The Registrars derived their emolument from drawing 
up the decrees of the court, and were paid according to the 
length of the decree. No one doubted that five-sixths of the 
decree, in the form in which it was drawn, was superfluous ; 
but the suitor was obliged to take it, at the call of the Regis- 
trar, who derived from it the remuneration for his labor. The 
time of the Registrar and the money of the suitor were thus 
sacrified to a wretched system. The length of the decree 
caused great delay to take place before it could be completed; 
and until it was complete it was of no use to the suitor. The 
shortening of the decrees and orders, and the consequent re- 
duction of fees, have at once removed these grounds of com- 

* By the 28th section of 3 & 4 William IV. c. 94, four of the Six Clerks 
are abolished as they fall in, thus leaving the remaining two to do all the du- 
ties without any increase of salary. The 29th section of the Act suspends till 
May 1, 1834, the filling up of any places in the Sworn Clerk's Department of 
the Office, thus enabling Parliament to deal with the Office in the interval, 
•when it is to be hoped that the Lord Chanchellor's plan will be brought 
forward with better success. 



36 

plaint. The concise forms in which the decrees will be here- 
after prepared, ensure expedition, and the reduced scale of 
fees will allow them to be given at a very moderate cost. The 
saving to the public will amount to no less than 17,050/ per 
annum.* 

The Masters' Office was in a still worse condition than the 
Registrars. The cost and delay of the proceedings there were 
intolerable, owing to a rule, that no document could be read 
before the Master, until it had been copied in his office; the 
charge for such copy being paid to the Master. The parties 
in vain protested against taking copies of what was of no use 
to them, or any one else:t the rule was inflexible, and, in case 
of poor suitors, very often operated as a total denial of justice. 
No wonder that the word copy-money is so odious to the suit- 
ors of the Court. Nothing, perhaps, could be more objectiona- 
ble, except the other great abuse termed "gratuities," which 
formed a great source of the income of the Master's Clerk. 
This was a consideration paid him by the parties for expedi- 
tion, so that the rich man had thus the means of securing for 
himself the precedence. One of the Masters, to his honour 
be it spoken, shocked at a striking instance of venality which 
occurred in his own ollice, abolished these gratuities without 
waiting for a compulsory clause in an Act of Parliament. Both 
copy-money and gratuities are now abolished ; and the Mas- 
ters and their Clerks are paid by salaries, which will reduce 
the expense of the office from 52,000/. to 35,000/. being a sa- 
ving to the public of 17,000/. per annum. 

Present Income. Future. Saving. 
10 Masters, averaging 3,900/. a 

year each .... £39,000 25,000 14,000 

10 Chief Clerks, averaging 

1,300/. per annum each - 13,000 10,000 3,000 

But the savings to the suitors will be the whole 39,000/., 
inasmuch as the whole of their future salaries are to come from 
the Suitor's Fund, which is in a state to admit of this contribu- 
tion, without any injury to the public. 

The reduction of four of the Six Clerks will make a saving 
of 4,800/. per annum, and the two Examiners of the Court of 
Chancery are reduced to 700/. per ann. each, which makes an 
additional saving of 1000/. per annum. 

Another stain upon the Court of Chancery has been the 
number of offices to which light duties and large emoluments 
were attached, to the cost of the suitor, out of whose purse 

Present Income. Future. Saving. 

* Master of the Report Office .... £4,300 1,000 3,300 

Registrars and their Clerks .... 27,800 14,050 13,750 

f In some instances, by agreement between the Solicitor and the Master's 
Clerk, the copies were not made, though the charge, for them iva-s, 



37 

these emoluments arc paid. These and other offices, in the 
gift of the Lord Chancellor, being all executed by deputy, 
were usually fdled by the members of his family, or his im- 
mediate dependants. The fruits of one of them, yielding 
7,500/. per annum, are now enjoyed by a clergyman who had 
the good fortune to be nephew to a deceased Chancellor, and 
another of them was for many years held by the three daugh- 
ters of Lord Chancellor Northington. The total amount re- 
ceived by these officers was 24,476/, per annum. Although 
this grievance has existed time out of mind, the present Lord 
Chancellor is the only one who has had the courage to apply 
the remedy, and the disinterestedness to make the sacrifice. 
By the Lord Chancellor's Act, introduced hy the Solicitor-Gen- 
eral, the salaries of these offices are made proportionate to the 
duties to be performed, and they will henceforth cost the pub- 
lic no more than 2,800/. per annum, being a saving of 21,670/.* 
It should be remarked also that two of these offices, producing 
together the net income of 2,600/., became vacant before the 
passing of the Act ; and as it was necessary at once to appoint 
some person to discharge their duties, the Lord Chancel- 
lor temporarily appointed his brother ; but by the regulations 
of the Act passed about the time of the appointment, and of 
this Act,- that appointment is at once cancelled, and the saving 
to the public accrues immediately ; all the other holders ot 

* Savings in Offices in the gift of the Lord Chancellor, as now regulated j 
Present gross In- Do. of Deputy Future Income Sa- 
come of Principal and expenses. and expenses, ving. 



Clerk of the Hanaper £3350 




550 


200 


3150 


Clerk of the Crown 


2100 




1000 


income 400 ? 
expenses 400 5 


1300 












Clerk of the Patents 


1205 




395 


income 250 ~> 
expenses 150 5 
income 500"^ 


805 


Registrar of the Affidavits 


2800 




1000 


clerk 150 £ 
expenses 350 J 


1800 


Clerk of the Custodies 


1722 




375 


expenses 200 ? 
no income 5 


1522 












Clerk of the Presentations 


143 




100 


no income ? 
expenses 50 $ 


93 












Clerk of the Dispensations 


316 






no income ? 
expenses 50 5 


266 


Patentee of Subpoena 


1244 




682 




1034 


Chaff Wax 


1300 




400 


no income ? 
expenses 50 5 


1650 


Sealer 


1000 




200 


no income ? 
expenses 50 5 


950 












Prothonotary 


100 


abolished 




1000 


Clerk of Enrolments? 
in Bankruptcy y 


This Office was 


revived under a Bill bi 


ought 


in by 


Mi*. Freshfield. 




Patentee in Bankruptcy 


9500 




1500 




9000 



£24,680 6,202 2,800 21,670 



38 

these offices, insisting on the benefit of their vested rights, 
the public are debarred from the advantages of the arrange- 
ment as to them during their lives. 

Thus the suitors in Chancery will be relieved by a reduction 
of cost to the amount of 68,470/. per annum; and it must not 
be forgotten, that this is in addition to the reduction of 28,000/. 
effected in the cost of proceedings in Bankruptcy, by the Bill 
introduced by the Lord Chancellor in 1831. 

Another subject of complaint against the Court of Chancery 
has been removed, by a Bill to amend the practice in cases of 
Lunacy.* — Commissions of Lunacy may henceforward be di- 
rected to the persons best qualified to execute them, and all the 
unfortunate individuals against whom Commissions are in force 
are secured from improper treatment, by the constant superin- 
tendance of a Board appointed for that purpose, the expenses 
of which will be defrayed by a trifling per centage on the clear 
annual incomes of the Lunatics, the more wealthy portion of 
whom will thus be made to assist ther companions in misfor- 
tune, in procuring a benefit common to them all. 

The last of the Lord Chancellor's legal Reforms this Session 
was a Bill for the separation of the judicial from the political 
functions of the Great Seal, for the appointment of a Chief 
Judge, and the establishment of a Court of Appeal in 'Chance- 
ry. The salary of the Lord Chancellor was proposed to be 
reduced from 14,000/. to 8,000/. a year. The great pressure 
of business caused the Bill to be postponed to next year. 

The substitution of an efficient Court, composed at least of 
four Judges, for the old mode of hearing Appeals at the Privy 
Council, is another of the important changes effected this Ses- 
sion. 

It must be admitted that a single Judge, hearing and decid- 
ing on questions of great moment, was not a very good speci- 
men of a Court of Appeal; particularly when it is considered 
that the questions brought before the Privy Council are gene- 
rally questions involving some of the most abstruse points of 
foreign law questions, in which the interests of millions of peo- 
ple (as in the case of India) are involved. The repeated com- 
plaints of our colonists who suffered under the infliction of 
this mode of trying appeals, to say nothing of the uncertainty 
and delay, it must be admitted, were any thing but ill-founded. 

By the present arrangement, first the expensive anomaly of 
the appeal to the delegates (requiring in each case a separate 
commission,) has been removed: and an efficient Court consti- 
tuted; powers have been given for the examination of evidence, 
and enforcing the determinations, as finally pronounced by the 

* An Act to diminish the inconvenience and expense of Commissions in 
the nature of writs de lunatico inquirendo, and to provide for the better care 
and treatment of Lunatics and persons of unsound mind, found such by In- 
quisition, — 3 and 4 Wiiliam IV. c. 36. 



30 

King in Council, on the recommendation of the Court. Some 
technical difficulties had for a quarter of a century prevented 
the hearing of from fifty to one hundred Appeals from the 
Native Courts of India, involving property in dispute to the 
amount of nearly a million of money, and entailing, by this 
delay and suspense, an incalculable mass of misery and injus- 
tice. These, the present law has removed; and the Natives of 
India will no longer suppose that the power of Appeal has 
been bestowed on them in mere mockery? 

But there is another, and a far more important question con- 
nected with this subject: namely, the promise which this Reform 
holds out, that, ere long, the constitution of the highest Court of 
Appeal will receive that consideration, and undergo that improve- 
ment which its present constitution so urgently demands. It is 
but reasonable to suppose that the same views, and the same spi- 
rit which induced the present Ministry to propose and perfect this 
amendment, will not be backward in giving efficiency and per- 
fection to the Court which is the highest known to the constitution, 
and that this Reform of the Appellate Jurisdiction of the Privy 
Council will lead to the establishment of a well organized and 
efficient Court of Appeal, instead of that now existing; which is, 
in fact, in nine cases out of ten, an appeal to a single Judge, 
(and not seldom from his own decisions,) assisted only by a Bishop 
and a lay Lord, attending under penalty, and according to a rota. 

The severity of our criminal code has been mitigated by an 
Act abolishing the punishment of death upon persons entering and 
stealing in a dwelling-house.* Heretofore the simple fact of en- 
tering a dwelling-house, either by day or night, and steal " any 
article of any value whatever," subjected the offender to the 
highest penalty of the law. Transportation and imprisonment 
are substitued for this sanguinary provision. 

The Acts for the amendment of the Laws of Real Property 
will form a memorable epoch in our civil history. That which is 
the most general and practical, the Limitations of Actions Bill, 
may be designated as a salutary and long demanded law for the 
quieting men in the possession of their estates. No single 
change in the law so sweeping or so important has been made 
within the last century. It is one of the soundest and the most 
vital principles of the law of property, that he who has a right 
shall pursue it within a reasonable time, or be at once shut out. 
As the law stood in some cases, claims might be made at almost 
an indefinite period, when all chance of defence was gone, wit- 
nesses dead, &c. The length of time allowed for prosecuting 
suits gave rise to the rule that no one could be considered as 
having a good title to land unless he could show an undisputed 
possession of at least sixty years; nay, from particular circum- 
stances, he was often compelled to trace it through the course of 

*This Act was introduced by Mr. Lennard, M. P. for Maiden, with the 
support of Government. 



40 

a whole century or more. Hence the expense and difficulty re- 
lating to the sale of lands, liy the new law, the time for claim is 
reduced to twenty years, with a saving of ten years more in cases 
of disability. All the old uncertain and fantastic remedies are 
at once swept away; and with it the profits and pickings of law- 
yers; the remedy for the recovery of property reduced to one 
uniform and simple standard, and the Statute Books and the Di- 
gests are at once relieved of a mass of rubbish. One of the ad- 
vantages next in importance to thus shutting out stale claims, is, 
that henceforth, the rule which makes a sixty years' title neces- 
sary, must be materially abridged by the Courts, say at least one 
half, and thus one halt of the expense of tracing titles will be 
removed. 

The Act for abolishing Fines and Recoveries is another impor- 
tant change, Till now, in the nineteenth century! (laymen will 
scarcely believe it,) whoever wished to bar an entail, must suffer 
a recovery, as it is termed; that is, must actually have a suit 
commenced before he could acquire any power of dealing with 
that property which in effect was his own. The whole matter, as 
regarded the forms and the fees, was proceeded in pure earnest- 
ness. The rest was a fiction, and put money in the pockets of the 
attorneys. This farrago of rubbish, inflicted grievous and two- 
fold evil. First, the expense, next, the risk which attended this 
ticklish proceeding; but expense was nothing to the risk. For 
though the suit was fictitious, yet the Court was so far in earnest, 
that a single slip, an accidental misapplication of some principle 
of law, (and the laws relating to these proceedings were amongst 
the most difficult and recondite relating to property,) the leaving 
out a word, perhaps, vitiated the whole proceeding. 

It was no uncommon thing to see a person who had purchased 
an estate turned out of the possession by a claimant, under an old 
entail, on the ground of some technical error in the recovery. The 
levying a fine was a proceeding somewhat similar, and accompa- 
nied by the same absurb formalities, with the like expense, and 
often with the like result. The new law has at last annihilated 
these anomalies. Volumes upon volumes have been written on 
the operation and effects of Fines and Recoveries, and on the 
various acts for the limitations of actions which, by these two 
Statutes just past, are converted into harmless lumber, only to 
be looked into in future times by the antiquarian. Can it be be- 
lieved, that it was on the introduction of such measures as these, 
that Lord Eldon, groaning over the change, weeping at the loss of 
those forms and subtleties, in which he had delighted for more 
than half a century, tried to sound the alarm, and cried out, that 
of they passed, if fines and recoveries were made a dead letter, 
every country gentleman ought to hire a young barrister, and take 
him with him into the country as a sort of a legal garde cham- 
petre? 

There are two other measures connected with real property, 
for the amendment of the law of Inheritance and the laws re- 
lating to Dower, removing several anomalies and inconveniencies. 
Amongst the rest, the absurd dogma of the laws of Inheritance 



41 

which prevented a father or mother from inheriting the lands of a 
child. As the law stood, the estate of the child went to the remotest 
collateral relation, nay, even escheated to the King for want of 
heirs, -rather than ascend to a parent. This absurdity, and some 
others, such as that law which prevented a brother or sister of the 
half blood from inheriting, have been removed. One, however, im- 
portant measure suggested by the Commissioners, the bill for es- 
tablishing a General Registry, and which was brought forward 
after very considerable care and preparation has been rejected by 
the House of Commons. Though this is to be regretted, yet it is 
impossible but that when that general attention has been given to 
the subject, and its vital importance, as regards the title and pos- 
session of all landed property ascertained, the hasty decision of 
the last session will be recalled. 

It is not the House of Commons alone which has rejected an 
important law improvement. The House of Lords threw out the 
Local Courts Bill, a rejection far more to be regretted than the 
loss of the Registry Bill. With care and good council a man had 
a fair chance of maintaining a title to his property, but according 
to the existing state of the law, as it regards debts and suits, not 
involving property to a large amount, the very existence of justice 
is practically denied. On what evidence was the Local Courts 
Bill founded? Why, on the testimony of whole classes of those 
most interested in the change of the law; of those who had suf- 
fered greviously from it in pocket. Did not witness after witness 
state to the Common law Commissioners that the remedy, as it 
now stands, is worse than the evil? Did not whole firms say we 
never sue for small debts? Is it not proverbial that an attempt to 
recover a debt for a small amount is little else than throwing good 
money after bad? Does any man, without a long purse, attempt 
to seek redress for injury? Are not people constantly ruined by 
a successful law suit? How was this measure introduced? Was 
it a hasty, crude, theoretical scheme, seeking change for the sake 
of change, making judges and places merely for patronage? or 
was it one that the public have been, with one record, calling for 
as a right? one that has been recommended and supported by all 
parties at various times, when the subject was discussed? — The 
bringing justice to every man's door, — a following up, or rather 
restoring, the judical constitution of the country. The measure 
came recommended by the united voices of the Common Law 
Commissioners, all practising lawyers of eminence. Neither was 
there any fear of bias on the score of politics, for, with one ex- 
ception, every one of those was known, more or less, to be op- 
posed to the views of the present Government. Is it likely 
that, with what may be considered the prejudices of such men 
against a change, they should have been induced hastily, and 
without reference to consequences, to recommend so important a 
measure, without cautiously balancing the evil against the good? 

What in reality were the principal arguments against the mea- 
sure? that cheap justice was a nuisance, and that the Judges (not 
having 5000/. a year,) and who lived in the country, would be- 
come at once bad lawyers and corrupt judges? This is not the 



42 

•pin co to discuss such points; to balance between that justice 
which is cheap and attainable, and that which from its price is 
practically beyond reach of the many; or to consider the pay ne- 
cessary to make a judge capable of deciding on a 20/. debt, a 
petty action of slander, or of assault and battery. Coupled with 
the Local Courts Bill, is the measure for the Abolition of Impri- 
sonment for Debt, — anothergreat stride in Reform — one long cal- 
led for by every philosopher and statesman who has considered 
the subject. A Bill for this purpose was introduced by the Soli- 
citor General, but owing to the necessity of making changes in 
its provisions, in consequence of the rejection of the Local Courts 
Bili, it was withdrawn, not however without full promise of its 
being renewed in the next session. 

Beiorc quitting the head of Legal Reform, the Bill brought in 
for the Consolidation of the Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions must be 
noticed, though it has not been carried through. The measure 
has been prepared, and this, like those reforms before noticed, is 
made in consequence of the recommendations of a commission 
which was issued for consideration of the best mode of removing 
many of the anomalies, and many of the cumbrous processes 
which exist in the numerous Ecclesiastical Courts spread over this 
country. By the recommendation of the Commissioners, the 
whole testamentary jurisdiction of the different Ecclesiastical 
Courts, (some hundreds in number,) will be abolished, and to the 
long and inconvenient proceedings in the Ecclesiastical Courts 
reformed. Power is given to the judges to try the causes, as 
other causes are tried to hear evidence viva voce. The absurd and 
obsolete powers of punishing in the Ecclesiastical Courts for 
brawling, defamation, incest, adultery, fornication, &c. are to 
be swept away. These changes, with many other important pro- 
visions relating to the jurisdiction of the Ecclesiastical Courts, 
and the discipline of the Church, will, when completed, form part 
of an important and widely extended Reform. 

All these improvements, great as they unquestionably are, will 
probably be far surpassed by the good that we may expect from 
the Commission to arrange the Statutes relating to the Criminal 
Law. Independent of the usefulness of the immediate object of 
the Commission, the measure is most important as the first ap- 
proach that has been made by any Government in this country 
towards a National ("ode. Our Statutes have gone on from year 
to year progressively increasing, till, from one volume, they have 
spread into iifty, whilst their inconsistency, verbosity, and tautolo- 
gy, have become no less alarming than their bulk. Their necessary 
companions and intepreteis, the Reports ot the Decisions in the 
Courts of Justice, actually reach three hundred volumes, being 
about ten times the number known to Lord Coke. Thus, be- 
tween the lawgiver and his interpreter, our laws may soon be 
such " as no fortune can purchase, and no capacity can digest;" 
and it is only by adopting the course which rescued the Roman 
Jurisprudence out of this unhappy condition, that we can hope to 
avert our impending danger. 

We have entered at some length into a detail of the Law Re- 
ferons, seeing their great practical importance to the well-being 



43 

of the country, and how much these improvement.-; tend to restore 
the tone of content to men's minds, and as affording a convincing 
proof of the labors of the Session, more especially when the par- 
ticular difficulties of effecting these Reforms are considered. 
Difficulties which, arising first from the complexity of the subject, 
the variety of aspects under which every point must be consider- 
ed, the mass of detail to be attended to ; and lastly, the interested 
and endless hostility arising from Attorneys, Barristers, Clerks, 
and holders of offices, with large fees and small duties. Are seven- 
ty Commissioners of Bankrupts to be swept away; seventy, nay, 
seventy times seventy enemies are at once raised up, those who 
have been quietly living in the enjoyment of the fees in decent 
obscurity, come forth open-mouthed ready for the fight — fathers, 
mothers, uncles, aunts, friends; nay, the very expectants of these 
places, the loss of the mere potentiality of the possession of 
which at a future period is considered a robbery, all, in one 
loud cry, denounce the injustice and impugn the system which 
brings Reform in this department. Professional men, wedded 
to forms and ancient practices, seek to alarm the public by 
mysterious warnings of the approaching dissolution of all the 
bonds which hold property together; compensation for overgrown 
salaries, down to the smallest contingent fee, is clamoured for, 
or humbly begged. And before the reform can be effected, the 
assertions and the arguments of the one class are to be contradict- 
ed and refuted, the claims of the other are to be estimated with 
care, and reasonably satisfied, in addition to all the labors and 
knowledge requisite to render the measure entirely perfect and 
complete. Those only, we suspect, who have traced the progress 
of such a measure of Reform as we have alluded to, through all its 
mazes, can be really aware of the difficulty with which such a 
measure is achieved, or the patience and temper which are re- 
quired for its accomplishment. 

CORPORATIONS. 

Amongst the most important of the Commissions appointed by 
the Government is that for inquiry into Corporations — a measure, 
of perhaps the most importance of any which was originated du- 
ring this session; one, and only inferior in value to the Reform 
Act itself. It is the grand assault on the last hold of Tory cor- 
ruption, and abused patronage. No evil called more loudly for 
reform — no abuse weighed more heavily on the general mass ot 
the inhabitants of Corporate Towns, than the administration of 
the Corporate Property, and the undue exercise of powers, origi- 
nally designed for the benefit of the people. 

If the representation of the country required reform, if that 
had become corrupt from age, misuse, and change of the times, 
surely all must admit that every argument which was used in 
furtherance of a Reform in Parliament, may, with at least equal 
justice and like force, be urged for a complete revision and reform 
of Corporations. 

The Commission which has been appointed, and the names of 
those to whom it is directed, will ensure searching and complete 



44 

inquiry. And it is only by such previous inquiry, by an accu- 
rate and detailed statement of the circumstances which relate to 
each town, and to the mode in which the powers confided has 
been exercised, that real and substantial justice can be done, or 
the means of sound legislation obtained. 

It may be fairly assumed, that where malversation has existed, 
where privileges exist, inconsistent with the good government of 
people, neither the one nor the other will be allowed to remain. 

A guide, indeed, to the views of the ministers, on this subject, 
may in some respects be found in the bill brought into the House 
of Lords this Session, though not as yet proceeded with : this 
makes provision for the incorporation of the new boroughs; the 
voters for the borough are to become burgesses of the corporation. 
The burgesses of each ward are to elect the common-councilmen, 
who are to elect the mayor and aldermen, town-clerk, and other 
officers. 

One main feature of this measure is, that no property can be 
acquired by the corporation; and hence their poverty will be the 
best guarantee for their honesty. And as there will be no pa- 
tronage, there can be no jobbing. 

The mayor and aldermen are to be the magistrates for the town, 
and by their frequent meeting in petty sessions to ensure speedy- 
justice : and they, with a given number of the common-council, 
are to form a committee, for the sole purpose of regulating an 
efficient police, which, in fact, may be considered the most impor- 
tant object of their incorporation. 

SCOTLAND. 

Connected with Corporation Reform, is the material change 
which has been made, this Session, by which the whole system 
of self-election in the Scotch burghs has been entirely abolished. 

This flagrant abuse, which was introduced nearly four centuries 
ago, under pretence of avoiding the tumults incidental to popular 
election, had long ago produced its natural fruits, in the utter dila- 
pidation of the revenues of most of their communities, in an almost 
unbroken series of corruption and embezzlement, and at last, in 
the general discontent and indignation of all who were exposed to 
its influence. 

It was in vain, that the attention of Parliament, and Parlia- 
mentary Committees, had been called to the system; the power 
of corruption was too great to admit of its being destroyed, till 
the voice of the people prevailed in a Reformed House of Com- 
mons. 

A liberal constitution, in most respects similar to that confer- 
red by the English Corporation Bill, has been given to these bo- 
roughs, and in like manner Scotch Commissioners have been 
appointed to search into, and apply a complete remedy to past 
municipal abuses. 

In addition to this important measure, a Commission has issued 
for a general inquiry into the state of the laws, and courts of jus- 
tice, with the view of introducing an extensive reform in both; 
and, from what passed in Parliament, it appears, that measures 



45 

for preventing the nial-administration of Church patronage are 
under the consideration of the Government. 

In the last session, an Act passed, by which the judicial duties 
of the Court of Exchequer were so regulated, as eventually to be 
executed at a charge of only £600 a year, instead of i-'SOUO per 
annum, which latter sum, be it observed, was a reduction from 
£70,000 per annum, the original cost. 

The most considerable duties of the Barons of the Treasury, 
were, as Lords of the Treasury of Scotland, acting under the 
direction of the Treasury in London. Much abuse, and no ad- 
vantage was derived from this : and this Session an Act was pass- 
ed, transferring to the Board of Taxes in London the whole du- 
ties of the Barons in respect to the revenue of taxes. This 
measure, and one in progress for the consolidating the collection 
of the revenue of Stamps and Taxes, will effect a considerable 
saving. 

Hitherto, the revenue of Scotland, amounting to about five 
millions, has been brought to a general fund of collection in Ed- 
inburgh, and transmitted thence, at a rate of exchange disadvan- 
tageous to the public. An arrangement is nearly completed, by 
which the remittances will be effected directly from the points of 
collection, and on terms more advantageous. Besides this saving, 
the arrangement will put an end to the office of Receiver General 
and Paymaster. 

POOR LAW AMENDMENT. 

The last of the domestic questions which we proposed to con- 
sider, is Poor Law Amendment; and, as it is the subject in which 
the least apparent progress has been made, it may be advisable 
to state, at some length, not only what has been done, but also 
the obstacles which have prevented more from being effected. 
The mode in which that subject was dealt with, during the forty- 
five years for which Mr. Pitt and his followers held office, is a 
most instructive example of the wisdom, public spirit, diligence, 
and courage of that party. When in the year 1795, the question, 
long after it had engaged the attention of all thinking individuals, 
at last was taken up by public men, the popular party, the party 
on whose side most sympathy was enlisted, was that of the re- 
ceivers of relief. Mr. Pitt, therefore, after a speech, in which he 
expressly proposed to apply every possible stimulus to population, 
and was ready, if he followed out his own principles, to remove, as 
far as he could, all inducement to industry, or providence, 
brought in a bill quite worthy of such a preface; a bill to legalise 
Parish allowance in aid of wages, to those who had families, 
or were unable, or unwilling, to earn their whole subsistence 
by labor; to enable persons possessed of property to claim 
public charity, and even to demand a cow, or in the words of the 
bill, " any other domestic animal," to be supplied at the expense 
of the public. This bill, indeed, failed; but the act which Mr. 
Pitt actually introduced, the 36 Geo. III. cap. 23; the act, which, 
for the avowed purpose of preventing Parish relief from being 
administered in a mode "injurious to the comfort, domestic si- 
tuation, and happiness" of paupers, gave to the Magistrates 



46 

their present, and, indeed, more than their present discretionary 
power over the parochial fnds, was, perhas, more mischievous 
than the bill which was rejected. Under thesanction of that Act, 
the monstrous system under which we are now suffering; the 
system which proclaims, that indigence, whatever be its cause, 
whatever be the idleness, or improvidence or profligacy of 
the applicant, gives a right to comfortable subsistence out 
of the property of others, was fostered and extended, until it 
forced itself on the attention even of a Tory Administration. Com- 
mittees of the Lords and'of the Commons were appointed in 1817, 
and reported, that, "unless some efficacious check were interpos- 
ed, there was every reason to expect the neglect and ruin of the 
land, and the waste and removal of other property, to the utter 
subversion of the happy order of society so long upheld in these 
kingdoms." 

The cheek which the legislature interposed to meet these evils 
was characteristic. The 59 George III. cap 12, was passed. 
An Act, consisting of thirty-seven salutary provisions, almost 
every one of which is carefully and effectually neutralized by an 
exception or a qualification. The enacting clauses are without 
doubt to be attributed to the eminent persons whose name the 
act usually bears. The exceptions and qualifications were the 
wisdom of the Lords and of the unreformed Commons. Who 
can wonder that such act did ;not interpose the efficacious cheek 
demanded by the report, or that the evil thus tenderly handled 
by the Legislature, pursued its appointed course? 

The public, however, are not to blame for this. Writer after 
writer proclaimed the approaching ruin. Committee after com- 
mitteee examined evidence, and reported the necessity of amend- 
ment. Bill after bill was introduced, read a first time and dropped. 
All parties felt their danger; all, except the Government, endea- 
voured to avert it; but the task was difficult, unpopular, and dan- 
gerous. The Government was wise in its generation; and so the 
matter rested, till in the autumn of 1830, the mine exploded. It 
was at this calamitous period, when, in half the counties of Eng- 
land, the agricultural population were in arms, when barns and 
corn-ricks and thrashing machines were blazing, the clergy fly- 
ing their homes, the magistrates capitulating with the rioters, and 
the farmers secretly, or even openly urging them on; it was in 
the midst of this storm that the Tories abandoned the helm; and 
having run the vessel among the breakers, called on the Whigs 
to tack and preserve her. 

Among the innumerable subjects of Reform, which forty years 
of indecision and procrastination had accumulated, it was unhap- 
pily some time before Poor Law Reform could be attended to. 
An emigration bill, as a means of facilitating such reform, was 
among the first measures of the new Government. Itwasban- 
doned, however, from a fear that as an insulated measure, it might 
be worse than useless; and the more urgent business of Parlia- 
mentary Reform, by assorbing the attention of the public, and in 
a great measure that of the Government, made it impossible du- 
ring its pendency, to consider the whole question of Poor Law 



a 

Improvement; but the instant the Reform Bill had passed, thai, 
question was taken up. It was then supposed by many persons, 
perhaps by almost all, that the facts of the case were generally 
understood, and that a Government measure might be founded on 
the existing evidence. The Administration however, thought 
otherwise; they distrusted the ex-parte evidence obtained by 
Committees, from an examination of not more than 40 or 50 wit- 
nesses, all of whom came full of their own views, and anxious 
to supply testimony in their favor. They believed that the inqui- 
ry must be local, that witnesses must not be summoned, but sought 
for; that the pauper, the overseer, and the farmer, must be seen 
ih situ ; that work houses must be visited; vestry meetings and 
petty sessions attended, and the story of the independent laborer, 
the small proprietor, and the overseer, heard and considered, as 
well as that of the great farmer and the country magistrate; and 
that instead of a Chairman and four or five persons listening two 
or three hours a day for two or three weeks to voluntary witness- 
es, twenty or thirty persons ought to be employed for months in 
inspecting the actual workings of the system But as the body of 
persons who were to make that inspection must be too numerous 
to be able to prescribe any one mode of proceeding, or to agree 
in any report, it was determined to appoint a Central Commis- 
sion, whose business it should be to direct the mode of inquiry, 
to appoint the itinerant commissioners who were to make the act- 
ual inspection of the country, and after having received their 
separate reports to frame one final report, summing up the evi- 
dence, and proposing the measures which it should show to be de- 
sirable and practicable. 

The central Commissioners were accordingly appointed in the 
beginning of the year 1832. 

Scarcely any of them could be considered adherents of the 
present Government. Of the three principal Commissioners, the 
Bishops of London and Chester, and Mr. Sturges Bourne, the two 
former had been raised to the bench by previous administrations, 
and the third might be considered a political adversary. 

It was hoped that a Report might be obtained which would ena- 
ble Parliament to take up the question in that, or at least the 
succeeding session. 

The first proceeding of the commissioners was to circulate 
printed questions on those points which appeared to them most 
material, either from their actual importance, or from their being 
subjects on which little information was in print. 

While the replies to these questions were coming in, several of 
the Commissioners visited different parts of the country, in order 
to ascertain the mode of inquiry to be pointed out to their itiner- 
ant or as they have been usually called, Assistant Commissioners. 
The experience derived from these journeys, the practical know- 
ledge possessed by some of the Commissioners, or the information 
derived from the answers to about two or three hundred sets of 
printed questions, enabled the Commissioners to frame instruc- 
tions for their assistant Commissioners. When these had been 
framed, a business which necessarily took much time, the assis- 
tant Commissioners were appointed. To appoint them previous- 



48 

ly would iiave been useless, as no person could be expected to 
take an important and responsible office without the means of 
knowing what was expected from him. The choice, was by no 
means easy; much knowledge, activity, good sense, and diligence 
were required, joined to the power of composition and arrange- 
ment; and though the mere expenses of the assistant Commission- 
ers were paid, they received no remuneration for their time and 
labor. Several candidates for assistant Commissionerships de- 
clined the office when informed of the terms ; others withdrew 
their applications after they had considered the instructions; some 
after having accepted it, were prevented by illness or other un- 
foreseen causes, and some attempted and gave it up. 

At length however, a number of assistant Commissioners were 
obtained, and set in motion, sufficient, not to give a full account 
of the poor Law Administration of the whole of England, or even 
of a considerable portion of it: but to give such a sample of its 
administration as might enable the public to infer from thence 
its general state. The assistant Commissioners were directed to 
make their reports before the end of November, 1832. If the cen- 
tral Commissioners hoped that this direction would be complied 
with, they either under-rated the difficulty of the inquiry or over- 
rated the diligence of their assistants. It is believed that no re- 
ports were delivered before the end of the year 1832, and that 
many were not received until the January following. As they 
were received, they were sent to the House of Commons' printers 
to be printed, in anticipation of the order of the House. 

In the mean time, returns to the printed questions were receiv- 
ed to an extent far beyond what could have been anticipated. It 
is understood, that nearly 2000 parishes, in fact about one-seventh 
of England, have sent returns. These as they were received, were 
digested, and their substance was, in like manner, sent to the 
Parliamentary printers. 

A third branch of the evidence collected by the central Com- 
missioners, consists of communications voluntarily made to them 
by different individuals; many of them of considerable length and 
importance; particularly those on the subject of Labor Rates and 
Education, a portion of which has been already printed and dis- 
tributed by order of Parliament. 

The difficulty of getting printed this enormous mass of evidence 
and the impossibility of making full use-of it, while in manuscript, 
for the purposes of the final report, is understood to be the sole 
cause which prevented the central Commissioners from present- 
ing a report before the termination of the session. 

In the mean time some benefit has been derived from the labors 
of the Commission, not only by the publication ot the paper on 
labor rates, to which we have already adverted, but by the appear- 
ance of some extracts from their evidence. These extracts were 
published in compliance with a requisition from the home office, and 
are believed to contain, mot a selection of striking passages, and ex- 
traordinary statements, but a mere fair average of the contents of 
the reports from the assistant Commissioners. Such as they are, 
they fully shew the wisdom of Government in not resting satisfi- 



49 

ed with the existing information on the subject of poor Law Ad- 
ministration. If we compare the number, the variety, and the 
importance of the facts, and of the inferences contained in that 
small volume, with all the folios that have proceeded from Par- 
liament on the same subject, how far do the powers of individual 
research appear to exceed those of a Parliamentary Committee? 

There is every reason to expect, that before the commencement 
of the next session, the Commissioners, having taken such ample 
time for deliberation, will be able to propose, not perhaps the 
best conceivable measure, but the best that in the present state 
of political knowledge, public opinion will sanction, or a prudent 
Ministry introduce. A measure which, if it do not attempt at once 
to destroy the abuses that have been the growth of half a century, 
will immediately check their increase, and ensure their gradual ex- 
tirpation. And it may be added, that the possibility of such a result, 
a result on which the future welfare of England depends, appears 
to be due solely to the present administration. Their predeces- 
sors seem never to have contemplated such an undertaking, or to 
have had the least notion of the means by which it could be ef- 
fected. 

• In the mean time there was passed silently, and without the 
suggestion or assistance, or even the commendation of those who 
talk so loudly of their exclusive concern for the welfare of " the 
people," who assume to be the sole guardians of the working clas- 
ses — a measure which promises more substantial benefits to those 
classes than any which has succeeded the establishment of Friend- 
ly Societies and Savings Banks. 

Persons acquainted with those institutions, are aware that, of 
the Friendly Socities, a large proportion are based on erroneous 
principles, involving their ultimate ruin, and that in the majority 
of them, the hard earnings of the contributors are exposed to par- 
tial or entire loss, from the rapacity or the ignorance of the mana- 
gers. To avoid these disasters, a laboring man may have depos- 
ited in a Savings Rank the surplus earnings of his labor from 
childhood; but when in the decline of life he wishes to relax his 
toils, he may lose his deposit, from want either of knowledge or of 
means to invest it productively and securely. These calamities 
are dreadfully frequent, and not only throw an independent and 
noble minded laborer into the workhouse, to avoid which he has 
been abstinent through life, but produce more general mischief by 
the discouragement of provident habits. One such instance may 
crush the frugality of a whole village. From fourteen to sixteen 
millions of the earnings of the laboring classes are exposed to 
these casualties. Again, a seamen or a laborer in a distant ser- 
vice wishes to have his surplus wages sent home and applied to 
the payment of a weekly stipend to his aged father or mother; 
but there is no trusty person who will take care of the deposit, 
or trouble himself with the apportionment and payment of the in- 
stalments. In a thousand instances the laboring classes have not 
the opportunities of giving effect to family affections or friendly 
sympathies, possessed by those who have guardians and executors 
7 



50 

at their command, and can claim the services of the highest offi- 
cer of the state. 

By the Ministerial measure of 3d William IV. c. 14, Govern- 
ment has taken upon itself the guardianship of these cases. By 
that Act, the Depositors in Savings Banks, and others, are ena- 
bled to purchase Government Annuities, for life or for years, and 
either immediate or deferred. Experience may enable the Go- 
vernment to extend the amount beyond its present limit of 20/. a 
year. Tables of Insurance have already been framed, and have 
been sanctioned by the Treasury. The whole of the money ad- 
vanced is returnable in case the contracting party does not live to 
the age at which the annuity is to become payable, or is unable to 
continue the monthly or annual instalments. This measure will 
secure the beneficial application of a vast amount of savings most 
meritoriously accumulated, and in innumerable ways contribute 
to the comforts, and the advancement of the social condition of 
the great mass of the people. 

FOREIGN POLICY. 

In order to take a just view of our foreign relations, we mast 
carry our eve back for a moment to the condition of things when 
the present Government first took the helm. Three important 
questions were then pending, in all of which Great Britain either 
had taken a prom'nent part, or had a paramount interest. The 
affairs of Greece, Belgium, and Portugal. 

1. The Greek question, as far as England was concerned, be- 
gan with the protocol of April, 1826, which was signed at Peters- 
burgh by the Duke of Wellington, and which was followed by the 
treaty of July, 1827, signed in London, by Lord Dudley. The 
object of these instruments was to separate Greece from Turkey, 
and to place the Greek nation, within a territory to be specially 
defined, in a state of independence and self-government. 

When the present Administration succeeded to office, they 
found an agreement entered into by their predecessors, with the 
Porte, by which limits were to be imposed upon Greece, so nar- 
row and so ill-chosen, that, while important districts of Greece 
would have been left to Turkey, the Greeks would have had no 
defensible frontier, and perpetual collision would have taken place 
between the Turkish and Greek population. Such a settlement 
could only have laid the foundation of future quarrels. 

The present Government despatched Sir Stratford^Canning to 
Constantinople; to endeavor to make a more rational arrangement. 
That able'ambassador was completely successful ; and he obtained 
the consent of the Porte to an amended boundary, as excellent, 
in every respect, as the former one had been defective. 

Prince. Otho of Bavaria, selected as King of Greece by the 
three mediating Powers, in virtue of an authority from the Greeks 
themselves, has since arrived in his dominions, where he was en- 
thusiastically received; and Greece, reviving from the tomb, and 
awakening from the deathlike torpor of ages, takes her place 
among the Christian and civilized nations of Europe. 



51 

May we not hope that this country, once the peculiar seat of 
the arts, of science, and of civil liberty, will prove itself not 
unworthy of the fortunate condition to which it has now been 
raised. 

2. The Belgian question, like the Greek, had its origin in 
events antecedent to the formation of the present Government 
They found on this subject a course chalked out to them by their 
predecessors. They might modify it as they advanced, but could 
not, even if they had wished to do so, retrace steps already taken. 

The revolution in Belgium broke out in August, 1830. The 
King of the Netherlands, in October, called upon his allies, and 
Great Britain among the rest, to send him troops to quell the re- 
volt ; the British Government, under the Duke of Wellington, 
refused to do so; the Dutch were almost entirely expelled from 
the Belgian provinces; and the King of the Netherlands, unable 
to put down the rebels by his own means, or to get succour from 
his allies, entreated that a Conference might be assembled, and 
that an armistice might be imposed on the two parties ; himself 
and his revolted subjects. 

His request was complied with; in the beginning of November 
the Conference met in London; and its first act was to declare to 
the two parties that they should fight no more, and that the line of 
demarcation between them, during an armistice, unlimited as to 
time, should be the line which, before the union in 1814, sepa- 
rated the old Dutch provinces from the provinces of Belgium. 
This decree at once established the principle of separation. For 
the Belgians had declared themselves independent, and the King 
of Holland was told the war must cease. He could not, there- 
fore, recover his lost territory, except by the consent of the Bel- 
gians, and that consent it was evident he never could obtain. 

The task then of the present Government was so to settle the 
terms on which separation should take place, as to provide for the 
interests and security of all parties concerned. 

The arrangement is not yet completed, but it is supposed to be 
verging towards its close; and if Belgium finally becomes an in- 
dependent, constitutional, commercial, and neutral state, it will 
contribute more to preserve the peace of Europe in such a condi- 
tion of existence, than in any other which could have been as- 
signed to it. 

The difficulties which have been encountered, have arisen from 
the obstinacy of the King of the Netherlands, an obstinacy which 
during the last two years has burdened the Dutch with expenses, 
the permanent charges arising from which, will almost counter- 
balance the relief afforded them by the division of the debt be- 
tween them and the Belgians. 

The citidel of Antwerp was to be evacuated in fifteen days by 
the armistice which the King of the Netherlands himself had in- 
voked in November, 1830; but the possession of that fortress en- 
abled him to harass the Belgians, and to intercept their trade on 
the Scheldt. He therefore refused to give it up. England and 
France proposed to the other three Powers to declare, that Bel- 
gium should strike off from her debt to Holland a million of 



52 

florins for every week during which, after a certain time, the 
Dutch should continue to occupy any part of the Belgian Terri- 
tory. The three Powers refused to agree to this proposal; Eng- 
land and France therefore were obliged to resort to force: hence 
the siege of Antwerp, and hence the Dutch embargo. These 
vigorous measures disconcerted all the calculations of the Dutch 
King and his partisans, whether English Tories, or Continental 
Absolutists. Baffled in their schemes, they vented their anger in 
predictions. The Citidel would never be taken; the Prussians 
would march to relieve it; the Russians would pour down from 
Poland; Austria would take the held; and the tide of a general 
war would sweep the French back to their own frontier. But 
Prussia only grumbled, and coquetted about Venloo; Austria 
never stirred; and Russia contented herself with some angry 
boasts of what she would have done, if she had been nearer to the 
scene of action. The prophets then foretold* that Chasse, sooner 
than surrender, would blow up himself and his garrison, and bury 
all under the ruins of the place. But old Chasse went on quietly 
smoking his pipe; retiring from one cellar to another, as the bom- 
bardment advanced; and, at length, when the breach was practi- 
cable, and he had got to his last casemate, he surrendered, as peo- 
ple in such situations generally do. 

Then the embargo was said to be an utter failure; harmless to 
the Dutch, ruinous only to ourselves; it was unheard of to contin- 
ue it so long; we ought to go to war, or else release the Dutch 
ships; the measure was illegal, and, at the same time rediculous. 
These were the arguments and assertions by which the Tories 
tried to persuade Parliament to force the Government to take the 
embargo off. But Parliament turned a deaf ear to them; the em- 
bargo continued; and the consequences was, the Convention of 
the 21st of May. By that Convention the character of the Bel- 
gian question was entirely changed. The Dutch agreed to an 
unlimited armistice; and Europe was secured against any danger 
of a general war, resulting from the differences between Holland, 
and Belgium. The question of peace or war was from that mo- 
ment settled: what remained to be arranged, was a matter of 
florins, of tolls, and of duties; questions important, indeed, to 
the two parties, but not threatening the peace of the rest of Eu- 
rope. This was the fruit of the siege of Antwerp and of the em- 
bargo; and thus has the result fully justified the wisdom of those 
measures. 

3. The affairs of Portugal are drawing to a conclusion. The 
tyranny, which for five years has weighed down that wretched coun- 
try, has been dashed to the ground. Miguel's fleet has been cap- 

* The Tories appear on this as on other occasions, to have been influenced 
by their wishes rather than inspired by the spirit of prophecy. Mr. Alex- 
ander Baring 1 , the chief of the prophets, was thus led to pay an involuntary 
compliment to the talent of our Foreign Minister, when he observed, "If the 
Noble Lord can get the army of Marshal Gerard out of Belgium, which I ad- 
mit would be a great act — almost a master piece of diplomacy, &c. — August 
16, 1831, 



54 

tured; the siege of Oporto has been raised; 2,500 brave Portuguese 
have marched in triumph from the Guardiana to the Tagus; Donna 
Maria has been proclaimed in Lisbon, and a British Minister has 
again presented himself at the Court of the Rightful Sovereign of 
Portugal. British valor has, as usual, been associated with Por- 
tuguese freedom, and Cape St. Vincent has again witnessed the 
exploits of naval heroism. The English Government has, with 
respect to these affairs, steadily adhered to the course which it 
had chalked out for itself. It has been rigidly neutral in the con- 
test; but then it has required other Powers should be so to. 

When Don Pedro's expedition sailed from Terccira, a Spanish 
army assembled on the confines of Portugal, under pretence of 
observation, but obviously ready to strike a blow in support of 
Don Miguel, if an apportunity should offer. But the events of 
1826 had not been forgotten, and the experience of the conduct of 
Spain in that year was not thrown away. 

The British Government did not trust solely to the assurances 
of the Cabinet of Madrid, but prepared itself for all. events. A 
powerful squadron under Admiral Parker was sent to the Tagus, 
with orders, as was stated in Parliament, to take active part for 
Don Pedro, the moment a Spanish force should enter Portugal to 
assist Don Miguel. Spain and England have kept faith with each 
other; and though openly avowing their opposite wishes as to the 
result of the war, both stood aloof, leaving the contending parties 
ties to fight the matter out unaided. The part which England took in 
this struggle was, to keep the ring, and see fair play; and victory 
has remained with the cause of justice and of right. There can 
be no doubt that, if a Tory Government had been established in 
England, some pretence or other would have been found to let the 
Spanish army loose, and Portugal would have been still doomed 
to languish under the tyranny of Miguel. 

The result of this conquest is most important, and will be ex- 
tensively felt. The struggle was not simply between Pedro and 
Maria on one side, and Miguel on the other; Portugal was the 
arena on which the great European battle was to be fought by ap- 
pointed champions. The Tories of England, the Carlists of 
France and Spain, the Holy Alliance, and the enemies of liberty 
all over Europe, were the backers of Miguel; the friends of jus- 
tice and of rational government were the partisans of Maria; and 
if the cause of the Queen should continue victorious, the moral ef- 
fect of her success will be felt throughout the whole of Europe. 

While the attention of Europe was absorbed by events in the 
West, a sudden storm arose in the East, which threatened the 
destruction of the Turkish Empire. The throne of the Sultan 
was first menaced by his rebellious vassel, and then endangered 
by his protecting ally. The Porte has, for the present, escaped 
from both perils; the Egyptians have retired from Asia Minor, and 
the Russians have left Constantinople. It is the business of the 
British Government to take care that neither shall return again. 

The war between Mahomet Ali and the Sultan was not an or- 
dinary case of civil war between a Sovereign and his subjects, 
with which other States ought not to interfere. That contest 



54 

^threatened so materially to affect the distribution of power in 
the East, that the Governments of Europe were entitled to look 
upon it as a matter in which their own interests were directly in- 
volved. Turkey may be a barbarous and uncivilized State; but 
if it were dismembered, what would become of its fragments? 
Would Europe gain, by substituting, at Constantinople, Russian 
civilization for Turkish barbarism? Would the benefit to humani- 
ty make up for the political evil? Could the crime of another 
partition be thus atoned for? Could we say 

Scelera ipsa nefasque 

Hac mercede placent ? 

Undoubtedly not. The Russian Empire is large enough for the 
purposes of good Government, and for the safety of the rest of 
Europe; and Constantinople must never be added to the domin- 
ions of the Tzar. 

To name Russia, is to think of Poland ; but, alas, what have 
we to say about that ill fated and devoted country ! It lies pros- 
trate at the feet of its conqueror, enduring all the miseries which 
exulting revenge can inflict upon a subdued, and no longer resis- 
ting antagonist. Are the statements which have been made on 
this matter exaggerated? for the honour of humanity we wish 
they may prove so; but if they are, why have they not been refu- 
ted? But, indeed, the published acts of the Russian Government 
speak for themselves. Have not those acts been calculated to 
crush national spirit and extingush national feeling; to wound the. 
hearts of individuals, and to add private affliction to public calami- 
ty? Could England have prevented all this? That is the ques- 
tion which belongs to our present inquiry. We fear we must an- 
swer in the negative; at least we believe that if England and 
France had attempted to throw their shield over Poland, the cer- 
tain and immediate consequence would have been a general war in 
Europe, while Polish deliverance would have been a doubtful result. 

The kingdom of Poland has no sea-port with which England can 
communicate; and it is separated from France by the interposition 
of half of Germany. Austria and Prussia were ready to have 
supported Russia, and each had an army of 100,000 men on the 
Polish frontier, ready to march at a moment's notice. If we had 
declared war against Russia, on behalf of Poland, we should have 
had to wage that war against Austria and Prussia also. But what 
would those three Powers have done? They would all have uni- 
ted to crush the Poles, which, as their armies were placed, would 
have been but the work of a fortnight; and then we should have 
had to wage a general war in Europe, not to save the Poles, but 
only to avenge their fall. The war, too, would necessarily have 
been a war of political principle, at a moment when the recent 
events in France and Belgium had excited, to the highest pitch, 
the passions of mankind, and had brought into active conflict the 
tmost extreme opinions. We believe our Government judged 
^wisely. Butthe Polish nation sleeps, and is not dead. Some day 
•or other it may still awake: we trust that the brighter day which 
must await it, will be prepared first by a milder and juster, and 
therefore wiser policy on the part of Russia, and will not be pre- 



45 

general tone of the administration, and on the temper in which 
ceded by a renewal of violence and bloodshed. But no adminis- 
trative ingenuity can extinguish a great people, and no physical 
force can permanently keep such a people down in misery and 
bondage. 

With respect to the affairs of Italy and Germany, the British 
Government appear not to have taken a prominent part; but the 
correspondence of Mr. Seymour, which was published some time 
since in the newspapers, shews what their course has been as to 
the former. The counsels given by the English Government, 
seem to have been such as it became the Government of a free 
country to give, and those counsels appear not to have been pres- 
sed further than was consistent with a respect for the indepen- 
dence of other States. 

With Fiance, our relations continue to afford a striking contrast 
to former periods of our history. Time was, when England and 
France fancied themselves natural enemies; when the foes of the one 
became of course the friends of the other. Those days are passed 
away; may they never return; long may two great and intelligent 
nations reap from the friendly intercourse of peace, advantages 
far beyond any which the most successful war could afford to 
either. The union of England and France has, during a period of 
unexampled difficulty, preserved the peace of Europe; and we 
may safely predict that while this union subsists, that peace will 
not be broken. A general war would now be a contest, in which 
England, France, and the people of every country in Europe 
would be ranged on one side; and the despotic Governments with 
their armies would stand on the other. The immediate issue could 
not be doubtful, the ulterior results might be tremendous. The En- 
glish Government, we are convinced, will never court such a con- 
flict; the arbitrary Governments of the Continent will be too wise 
to provoke it. England, then, never had a clearer course before 
her, and never held a more dignified, or more honourable station. 
She stands umpire between hostile and excited parties; she holds 
the balance between extreme and opposing principles; her task is 
"Pacis imponere moremj" and this task she may continue to per- 
form no less to her own advantage, than for the benefit of the rest 
of the civilized world. 



We have now given a brief and imperfect outline of the prin- 
cipal transactions of the Session. We have shewn that in no 
Session within living memory, so much has been undertaken or 
so much accomplished. In politics as in war, fame depends on 
success, and it is by the future success of their measures, not by 
their good intentions, that the Ministry will be judged by posteri- 
ty. The best exposition of their intentions is, perhaps, to be 
found in the speech to which we have already referred, delivered 
by Lord Grey on the second reading of the Irish Church Reform 
Bill.* We will add, however, a few remarks of our own on the 

* "We had arrived at that situation in which one of two principles, of 
government must prevail. We must either have taken the bold, hazardous, 
and, I think, the fatal determination of depressing all spirit of Reform by se- 
vere coercive measures; or we must, conforming to the spirit and feeling of 



56 

they have carried on the government. They have been reproach- 
ed for want of firmness and decision; for having been too ready to 
modify, or even abandoned their own views; in fact for having 
been too ready to be guided by public opinion. It certainly is con- 
ceivable thai an administration might deserve such a reproach, but 
it must be admitted, to be rather an unusual one. The ordinary fault 
of Governors is just tbe reverse. Conceit, indifference to the advice 
of others, and presumptuous confidence in one's own knowledge and 
sagacity, are the usual concomitants of power. They have be- 
longed to the weakest administrations; and are the besetting sins 
of a strong one. That tbe present is a strong administration, no 
one can doubt who looks at its overwhelming majorities: if it have 
been too humble in the exercise of its strength, if it have paid an 
undue degree of attention to the suggestions of friends or even of 
enemies, it has been guilty of an error which may be easily par- 
doned since experience shews that it is one not likely to be re- 
peated. But we do not believe that any such error has been com- 
mitted. We believe that such a reproach can be made only by 
those who do not understand the times in which they live, and 
who apply to the present constitution the traditions of one that 
has ceased to exist. When the House of Commons consisted of 
partisans, when every speech and vote was part of a system; when 
measures were introduced not because they were useful but because 
they were plausible, and opposed not because they were likely to 
do harm to the country,, but lest they should do good to their pro- 
posers, — it might be tbe duty of a Government living in such an 
atmosphere of selfishness and insincerity, to form its plans in si- 
lence, and to carry them through with obstinancy, well knowing 
that what was good would be most likely to be attacked, and thac 
whatever was proposed as an amendment was probably designed 
to be mischievous. 

To get rid of this wretched system was the great object of the 
Reform Bill : and it has been got rid of. A majority of the 
Members of the H. of Commons are partisans not of the Minstry or 
of the Opposition, but of good Government. And ought their warn- 
ings to be disregared? Ought the voice of those who speak in the 
name of the whole people to have no more weight than if they 

the times, endeavour to correct those abuses which affect the Constitution, 
and the various institutions of the country. The first is a line of policy which 
every government ought to repudiate, and we never could be parties to a sys- 
tem which must lead, in the first instance, to the establishment of another 
'Holy Alliance,' for the purpose of extinguishing the spirit of liberty through- 
out Europe. It would be a vain and futile attempt; — ending in a war of opin- 
ion, and perhas, for a a time, in the destruction of that libeity and indepen- 
dence for the maintenance of which this country has made so many sacrifices. 
The other alternative, therefore, only was left to us; and we have endeavour- 
ed to bring forward those measures of Reform which have been submitted to 
your Lordships, and to the other House of Parliament, strictly, I repeat, up- 
on Conservative principles — wishing to cover the weak parts of the Govern- 
ment, and strengthen it against the attacks of its enemies, and to secure tbe 
confidence of its friends — to remove what even its friends deplore, and to op- 
pose those wild and extravagant projects which, while they promise peace 
and freedom, must end in despotism or anarchy. This, my Lords, is the line 
of policy we have adopted: we have pursued a straight and steady course; 
and having only the permanent good of our country at heart, we have thrown 
ourselves with confidence on the generosity of our countrymen." 



57 

were a body of mere nominees ? Or laying aside what ought to 
be done, can this be done ? Who doubts that it cannot ? Who 
doubts that the willingness with which the present administration 
has listened to suggestions, the earnestness with which it ha9 
sought, in every quarter, and by every means, for information, the 
frankness with which it has not only allowed but forwarded every 
inquiry,* must be imitated, and it cannot well be surpassed, by 
all who succeed them in there high office of presiding over the 
deliberations of a Reformed House of Commons? 

The character which we have thought it our duty to give to the 
Reformed House, is certainly opposed to the anticipations of the 
enemies, and some of the friends of Parliamentary Reform. We 
will own, that, in some respects, it differs from our own anticipa- 
tions. We expected, indeed, diligence from that House, and 
diligence it has bestowed, far exceeding that of any public assem- 
bly. It has sat, upon an average, nine hours each day during a 
Session of 142 days, making altogether 1,270 hours; whilst even 
the last Parliament, under the excitement of the Reform Question, 
did not sit, in what is termed their long Session, above 918 hours. 
The Committees exceed in number, in regularity of attendance, 
and, as may be perceived from the extract given in the annexed 
list.t in variety of subjects, those of any former Session. 

We expected much from the members for the new constituen- 
cies in these Committees, but our hopes have been surpassed. 
They have shown an attention and impartiality, with an amount 
of knowledge and business-like talent, such as is not usually found 
even in those who have enjoyed the benefit of long Parliamentary 
experience. It must, however, be admitted, that the merits of 
the Reformed House, in these respects, are less generally known 
than they ought to be. Though almost all the real business of 
the House is done in Committees, the absence of reporters leaves 
the public in ignorance of the persons and the labor by which it 
has been effected. And though the debates on the Factory Bill, 
and on the other practical questions in which the new Members 
principally distinguished themselves, were reported, yet, in com- 
pliance with the general indifference of readers to the details of 

* Witness the Committees granted, as soon as asked for, on the Metropo^ 
Jitan Police, Army and Navy appointments, Cold Bath Fields Meeting, Land 
Revenues, &c. 

Days. Days, 

■j- Municipal Corporations - 28 Trade - * -36 

Scottish Entails - - 6 Letters Patent - - 12 

Royal Burghs in Scotland - 18 Land Revenues - -25 

Fines and Recoveries - 6 Stafford Borough - - 11 

Sale of Beer - - 20 Admiralty Courts - - 11 

Grand Juries in Ireland - 10 Dramatic Performances * 6 

Metropolitan Police - - 27 Irish Spirits - - 11 

Army and Navy Appointments 28 Cold Bath Fields Meeting - 12 

Agriculture - - 25 Chancery Offices Regulation 13 

It must be observed that all this business was transacted after Easter, ae 
up to that time the House was occnpied by Election Committees, 
8 



58 

such measure, their speeches were so briefly stated, as to give a 
most inadequate representation of their merits. 

One of the threats of 1832 was, that a Reformed House would 
not consist of Gentlemen. Never was there a more unfortunate 
prophecy. If the exhibition of manly and generous feeling, if 
the determination to see fair play, the disapprobation of any un- 
just, or unprovoked attack, the abhorrence of shuffling, or disin- 
genuous proceedings, the reliance on persoual integrity, the mark- 
ed attention shewn to those who preferred the general welfare of 
the country to the real or supposed interests of their constituents, 
and a contempt for those who ventured to profess themselves the 
mere mouth-pieces of the rapacity or prejudices of those who 
sent them, — if these are characteristics of Gentlemen, where 
shall we look for an assembly better deserving that title? Not, 
certainly, among the nominees of Peers, or the delegates from 
Corporations. The Members of the Reformed Parliament have 
sometimes displayed impatience, but it has been impatienoeof va* 
nity or presumption. Some persons have incurred ridicule; but 
not those who in a homely manner, or a provincial dialect, tender- 
ed sincerely the results of their inquiries or experience. Some 
have even been refused a hearing; but only those from whom nothing 
would have been heard but declamation, for the purposes of dis- 
play or agitation. The fault found, and perhaps not unjustly 
found, with the House, has been its toleration and indulgence, a 
fault the least likely to increase. 

In the most important of all merits of a legislative body, sin- 
cere public spirit, the superiority of the. present House is still a 
more striking, This again we expected; but our expectation was 
mixed with fear, that so large a body, no longer under the strict 
disciplire of private interest and party feeling, might be wanting 
in that general confidence, in the Executive, which is essential to 
steady Government. We were apprehensive, that by rashly in- 
terfering with the proceedings of the administration, where all 
the grounds for those proceedings could not be shewn, as is the 
case, for instance, in matters of foreign policy, or where the sub- 
ject is too vast to be mastered by any but those who have made a 
business of it, as is the case in many questions of finance, and 
commercial and manufacturing regulation, they might force the 
Ministry either on mischievous measures, or on resignation. 

Apprehensions, far exceeding these, were felt, or pretended to 
be felt, by the opponents of the Reform Bill. Night after night 
we were told, that a Reformed House would acknowledge no 
leaders; or, at least, no leaders on the ministerial benches; that it 
would use the services of the present, or any future Ministers, 
but treating them only as its servants, and bearing with them 
only so far as they would implicitly follow the dictates of its 
fraud, or violence, or caprice. Has this been so? Is there any 
reproach which has been more profusely heaped on the present 
House, by its enemies, than that of subservience to Ministers? 
Has any former House shewn itself more conservative, not of the 



59 

abuses, but of the blessings, of the Constitution? And if there is 
any portion of the House which less deserves this praise, if there 
is anj portion which has been more inclined than the rest to sa- 
crifice the substantial interests of the Country to popular clamor, 
or popular sympathy, has this portion belonged to the independ- 
ent, or to the Ministerial, or to the Tory part of the House? In 
spite of the opposition, sometimes separate, but more frequently 
combined, of Tories and Radicals, there never, so far as the 
House of Commons is concerned, has been a stronger Adminis- 
tration. It is true, that their strength has uot been founded on the 
basis which formed the strength of their predecessors, so far as 
their predecessors were strong. It has not been derived from a 
body of mercenaries, blindly adherent while adherence seemed to 
their interest, and violently hostile as soon as hostility appeared 
profitable. The present Ministry are powerful; but it is the 
power of a Leader, not of a Master, It will last as long as they 
deserve it, and they ought to wish that it should last no longer. 
-^»o — 

APPENDIX. 

POST OFFICE. 

The following statement, compiled from official returns, will not 
be unacceptable to those who duly estimate the advantages of in- 
creasing the means of communication throughout the kingdom. It 
furnishes the best answer to the complaints which some individu- 
als have made, of a want of energy in this department. 

These improvements have been effected during the time the 
Duke of Richmond has been Postmaster General. 

4 new cross Mail Coaches established in Great Britain. 

22 of the English and Scotch Mail Coaches accelerated, in- 
cluding those from London to Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, 
Glasgow, and Milford, and on the principal cross-road lines. 

19 entirely new Horse Posts established. 

11 old Communications improved. 

14 places made Post Towns. 

Letter Carriers appointed at 35 Towns; and the gratuities pre- 
viously charged on the delivery of letters discontinued. 

16 Letter Carriers added at large Towns to meet the increased 
demand for accommodation. 

75 Penny Posts established, including, in an official arrange- 
ment, many hundred villages and hamlets, which had previously 
little or no means of communication by Post, and producing con- 
siderable additional revenue. 

Miscellaneous improvements effected at 24 different Towns. 

SCOTLAND. 

10 new Post Communications opened. 
14 old Communications improved. 
Letter Carriers appointed at 25 Towns. 

25 Penny Posts established upon the same principles, and with 
the same results, as in England. 



60 
Miscellaneous improvements effected at nine different towns. 

IRELAND. 

7 new Mail Coaches established. 

12 of the Mail Coaches accelerated and improved. 

32 new Post Communications opened. 

42 old Communications much improved. 

128 Penny Posts established. 

The Deliveries and Receiving Houses in Dublin, placed on an 
improved footing. 

6 new Twopenny Post Riders established. 

36 addititional Letter-Carriers appointed. 

Additional Deliveries granted at upwards of 40 different vil- 
lages in the neighborhood of the Metropolis. 

An additional collection of letters daily established in seven 
-districts. 

The town delivery extended to a circle of three miles from the 
General Post Office; reducing the postage within that distance to 
2c?., and affording many advantages to the correspondence. 

The General Post Delivery extended to a circle of three miles 
from the Post Office, exempting a large portion of the correspon- 
dence from the twopenny postage, and accelerating the receipt of 
the letters in many cases. 

A receiving house opened at the Eastern, and another at the 
Western extremity of the New Boundary, for the deposit of the 
General Post Letters, affording much more time for putting in 
letters. 

2 additional "Accelerators" employed. 

The Foreign Mails, delivered by the Inland Letter-Carriers, 
instead of waiting until 10 o'clock. 

Foreign Mails arriving after the morning delivery, and before 
4 o'clock, sent out by the twopenny post despatches, according to 
the hour of arrival, and on post nights, by the 7 o'clock evening 
dispatches; the former practice being to retain any Mails arriving 
after 2 o'clock, for delivery next morning. 

The mails to Lisbon, and the Mediterranean, forwarded by 
steam vessels, and bags made up for Cadiz, Zante, and Patras. 

The mails to Holland and Hamburgh sent by steam vessels. 

A daily post established to and from France. 

N. B. The above account only shows the improvements for 
which the special authority of the Post-Master General has been 
obtained. There are other very numerous improvements con- 
nected with the acceleration of Mail Coaches, and the establish- 
ment or alteration of Horse Posts, which the surveyors are ena- 
bled to effect without increased expense, and which do not, there* 
fore appear in the official records. 



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